Lane Cove Tunnel

Lane Cove Tunnel
Basic data
Operator:	Transurban
Start of the street:	Pacific Highway Gore Hill Freeway Lane Cove ( Sydney ) ( NSW ) ( 33 ° 49 ′ S , 151 ° 11 ′ E ); ; ;
End of street:	Hills Motorway; North Ryde ( NSW ); ( 33 ° 48 ′ S , 151 ° 8 ′ E )
Overall length:	3.6 km
States :	New South Wales
	In the Lane Cove tunnel

Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

Entrance to the east

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Travel east on Epping Road and Lane Cove Tunnel

The Lane Cove Tunnel is a motorway tunnel in the north of Sydney in the east of the Australian state of New South Wales . It connects the Gore Hill Freeway in Lane Cove with the Hills Motorway in North Ryde .

course

The Lane Cove Tunnel begins on the western edge of the suburb of Lane Cove , where the Pacific Highway (Met-1) crosses the Gore Hill Freeway (Met-1). It leads west under the suburb of Lane Cove and the Lane Cove River and ends after 3.6 km in North Ryde, where the Hills Motorway (Met-2) connects to the northwest.

history

The AU $ 1.1 billion tunnel was built by a joint venture between Thiess and John Holland . Before it was completed, motorists had to drive down Epping Road through Lane Cove to get from Gore Hill Freeway to Hills Motorway.

In the morning hours of November 2, 2005, the ceiling of an air ducting tunnel for the project collapsed. As a result of the collapse, the road that led over this tunnel also gave way and a three-story building at Longueville Road 11-13 was affected. The collapse caused a 10 m by 10 m crater at the Pacific Highway exit in Lane Cove heading south. 47 people had to be evacuated from the building. Rescue workers pumped 1,000 m³ of concrete into the hole to save the building from collapsing. An investigation by Workcover NSW showed that the collapse was caused by the geological conditions at the site of the accident, the large span of the tunnel and insufficient support of the ceiling. The damage to private property was caused by the collapse just below the surface of the earth.

On March 25, 2007, the tunnel was opened by four workers representing their 9,000 colleagues who had worked on the project, two months ahead of schedule. The tunnel was toll-free for the first month.

Connector Motorways owned and operated the Lane Cove Tunnel and the Falcon Street Gateway . The company should operate the tunnel until 2037 (against the collection of a toll). The "unsuccessful infrastructure project" was a disaster for the company, which went bankrupt in January 2010 after only making a loss with the tunnel. Transurban , a company already operating other toll roads in Sydney, bought the tunnel in May 2010 for AU $ 630 million, becoming the new operator.

toll

In 2012, the toll for using the Lane Cove Tunnel is AU $ 2.94 for cars and AU $ 5.87 for trucks. They are adjusted according to the consumer price index .

Alternative routes

Before the Lane Cove Tunnel opened, motorists had to take Epping Road through the suburb of Lane Cove . Studies by the tunnel operator have shown that the tunnel shortens travel times by an average of 17 minutes and thus saves motorists over AU $ 4 per trip.

With the completion of the changes to the roads at the surface, Epping Road has permanent bus lanes which also save the buses travel time, a new bus stop, a combined foot and bike path, and other improvements. Car traffic will be directed to the new toll route.

Falcon Street Gateway

The Falcon Street Gateway consists of two entrances and exits on the Warringah Freeway that connect to the Military Road . The toll for this is AU $ 1.32 for cars and AU $ 2.62 for trucks. The operator states that the new connections can bypass up to 19 traffic lights on the Pacific Highway. The Falcon Street Gateway is part of a larger project to widen the Gore Hills Freeway and better connect the coastline north of Sydney.

Crossings and junctions

Lane Cove Tunnel
Connections to the west	Distance to Windsor (km)	Distance to Sydney (km)	Connections to the east
End of Lane Cove Tunnel and continue as Hills Motorway to Epping / Windsor	42	14th	Start of Lane Cove Tunnel from Hills Motorway
Start of Lane Cove Tunnel further from Gore Hill Freeway	46	10	Crows Nest, Hornsby Pacific Highway
	46	10	End of Lane Cove Tunnel and continue as Gore Hill Freeway to Sydney / Canberra