The Western Distributor is a

grade-separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tran ...

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

that is primarily elevated for the majority of its route on the western fringe of the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or c ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. From its northern terminus, it links the southern end of the Bradfield Highway at the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

to Victoria Road in

Rozelle Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Location Rozelle si ...

, at its western terminus near . The freeway is designated as part of the A4 for its entire distance.

History

Pyrmont-darling-harbour-western-distributor-construction-early-eighties

The Western Distributor came to be out of the realisation in the early 1960s that the existing roads that supported the Harbour Bridge would not cope with contemporary and projected traffic volumes. Due to existing infrastructure and buildings in the area, it was decided to build a viaduct to carry traffic above the city streets. Western Distributor - Construction Information"

Ozroads: The Australian Roads Website
' Accessed 25 October 2006 The Western Distributor was opened in stages starting in September 1972, with the last stage being the Anzac Bridge which was opened in December 1995. The distributor also replaces the former congested route out of the city via the

Pyrmont Bridge The Pyrmont Bridge, a heritage-listed swing bridge across Cockle Bay, is located in Darling Harbour, part of Port Jackson, west of the central business district in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. Opened ...

(closed in 1988) and the

Glebe Island Bridge The Glebe Island Bridge is a heritage-listed disused swing Allan truss road bridge that carried Victoria Road (as Bank Street) across Rozelle Bay, located in the inner city Sydney suburb of Pyrmont in the City of Sydney local government ar ...

(closed in 1995 with the opening of Anzac Bridge). The north-eastbound

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

ramps leading towards Bradfield Highway, designed in 1967, was widened from to accommodate a deck with a variable width from and consists of a steel structure supported on reinforced concrete

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

Abandoned section

Under the Western Distributor viaduct ramps at its northern end, between Sussex and Kent streets, there is an abandoned carriageway underneath the main roadway. It is a short section of elevated freeway; the top tier remains in constant use but the lower is suspended in the air; having been severed at each end.

Route

It is an unusual motorway as, citybound, it heads east, southeast after the

Anzac Bridge The Anzac Bridge is an eight-lane cable-stayed bridge that carries the Western Distributor (A4) across Johnstons Bay between Pyrmont and Glebe Island (part of the suburb of Rozelle), on the western fringe of the central business district of ...

, east, north then northeast. The freeway distributes traffic arriving from the north (a function which gives the road its name) while collecting traffic from the CBD, distributing it through Pyrmont and Ultimo before crossing over the Anzac Bridge. In the citybound direction, traffic is collected from Victoria Road and the

City West Link City West Link is a link road in Sydney, Australia. It makes up a section of the A4 between Leichhardt, Haberfield and Five Dock. As such, it provides an alternative route to Parramatta Road into the Sydney central business district from th ...

, as well as various on ramps in the Pyrmont and Ultimo areas. Traffic is distributed into the CBD through various off ramps in Pyrmont and the western edge of the CBD, as well as into the

Cross City Tunnel The Cross City Tunnel is a twin-road tunnel tollway located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The tunnel links Darling Harbour on the western fringe of the central business district to Rushcutters Bay in the Eastern Suburbs. Each o ...

. The remaining traffic is fed into the Bradfield Highway, as it is not possible for northbound traffic to exit onto the Cahill Expressway (traffic travelling east on the Western Distributor wishing to reach the eastern edge of the CBD and beyond must either travel through the Cross City Tunnel or negotiate the packed streets of the CBD).

Exits and interchanges

Planned links

When it was built, it was described as the southern end of the F3 Freeway, as that was where the

North West Freeway The North Western Expressway and the Lane Cove Valley Expressway was a planned but now cancelled freeway route in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, intended to link the Sydney CBD to its north-western suburbs, and ultimately the Pacific Motorwa ...

was intended to finish, however due to protests from inner city residents, this plan never came to fruition. The Western Distributor ends west of the Anzac Bridge western ramp and east of the junction between Victoria Road and

, with traffic fed onto either of these roads. Construction of the Rozelle Interchange as part of Stage 3 of

WestConnex WestConnex is a predominantly underground motorway scheme in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. As of 2022, it is partially completed and partially still under construction. A joint project of the New South Wales and Australian governments, t ...

is underway. With its scheduled completion in 2023, it will provide traffic-light free access from Sydney's CBD to its outer western suburbs and the Blue Mountains.

In popular culture

The road is referenced in the song "Hay Plain" by Australian artist

Julia Jacklin Julia Jacklin (born 30 August 1990) is an Australian singer-songwriter from the Blue Mountains. Jacklin's musical style has been described as indie pop, indie folk, and alternative country. She has released three studio albums, ''Don't Let the ...

References

External links

"Western Distributor - Construction Information"Western Distributor on Google Maps
{{Road infrastructure in Sydney Highways in Sydney