Western Motorway

Western Motorway
Basic data
Operator:	Roads and Maritime Services
Start of the street:	/ Parramatta Road North Strathfield ( Sydney ) ( NSW ) ( 33 ° 52 ′  S , 151 ° 8 ′  E )
End of street:	Great Western Highway Lapstone ( NSW ) ( 33 ° 46 '  S , 150 ° 38'  O )
Overall length:	46 km
States :	New South Wales
Aerial view of the Western Highway heading east. The former toll booth is still visible.

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

M4 from the footbridge in Silverwater

The Western Motorway is an urban motorway in the western suburbs of Sydney in the east of the Australian state of New South Wales . The toll road connects Parramatta Road in North Strathfield with the Great Western Highway in Lapstone .

history

The Western Motorway was originally built in various stages as the F4 Western Freeway between the late 1960s and mid-1980s. In 1985, financial problems led the Neville Wran government to postpone the last section between Mays Hill and Prospect . In December 1989 the construction of this section began as an operator model . In return for financing the project, StateWide Roads , the winner of the tender, was granted the right to collect tolls for the section between James Ruse Drive and Silverwater Road , as the traffic in this area is significantly higher than on the financed Mays Hill – Prospect route . This made it possible to achieve a shorter toll period and lower toll amounts. StateWide Roads' toll concession ended on February 15, 2010, and the operation of the freeway reverted to the Roads Department.

Most of the motorway has six lanes and is also used by heavy traffic on all weekdays during the day. Originally the road only had four lanes, but was widened between 1998 and 2000. However, this did not lead to a resolution of the traffic jams. Even widening it further would probably not improve the situation, as the traffic jams would only move further east due to the lack of an extension of the expressway into town.

Originally planned in the mid-1950s, the expressway was supposed to start in Sydney city center, but the eastern stretch of the route was only completed from the city center to Pyrmont , and served as part of the North West Expressway (Freeway Corridor F3) connecting the city centers of Sydney and Newcastle should connect. This section belongs to the Western Distributor today . From there it should connect to the Western Expressway (Freeway Corridor F4) and the Southern Expressway (Freeway Corridor F6) in Glebe . The western end of the Western Freeway (so named in the late 1960s) was supposed to be in the Michell's Pass area through Blaxland , but due to protests and the fact that the historic Lennox Bridge was very close to the planned route, it was decided to leave the route end on Russell Street in Emu Plains until a better solution was found. This was the way to bypass Lapstone Hill and avoid sharp turns at the entrance to Glenbrook . From December 1989, the extension of the freeway from Russell Street west to the Great Western Highway at Governors Drive bypassed the narrow, curvy section of the Great Western Highway including the historic Knapsack Bridge . In June 1993 the new motorway section from Emu Plains to Lapstone was ready.

As a result of an election promise made by Prime Minister Neville Wran in 1976, the land reserved for the Expressway between Pyrmont and Strathfield was sold to developers and has not been considered reserved for the freeway since 1977.

The marathons of the 2000 Summer Olympics were held on the Western Highway .

Metroad 4 East

An extension of Metroad 4 has been proposed and plans are well advanced. This extension would extend the Met-4 to the east beyond its current end in Strathfield by about 3 miles, so that it would connect directly to the City West Link in Ashfield . A further expansion of the City West Link would enable an intersection-free route from Sydney city center to Parramatta. The New South Wales government recently unveiled an AU $ 7.0 billion plan to link Metroad 4 to Victoria Road , City West Link and the airport. A system of tunnels should do this.

Crossings and junctions

Western Motorway
Connections to the west	Distance to Lithgow (km)	Distance to Sydney (km)	Connections to the east
At the end of the Western Motorway, continue as the Great Western Highway to Katoomba / Lithgow / Bathurst	84	58	Start of the Western Motorway from the Great Western Highway
Lapstone Governors Drive	85	57	no exit
Leonay, Emu Plains Leonay Parade Russell Street	87	55	Emu Plains, Leonay Russell Street, Leonay Parade
Mulgoa, Penrith Mulgoa Road	90	52	Penrith, Mulgoa Mulgoa Road
Campbelltown , Windsor The Northern Road	93	49	Windsor , Campbelltown The Northern Road
Liverpool, St. Marys Mamre Road	97	45	St. Marys, Liverpool Mamre Road
St. Clair, Colyton Erskine Park Road Roper Road	101	41	no exit
Canberra , Newcastle , Brisbane WestLink	105	37	Liverpool, Rooty Hill Wallgrove Road
Rooty Hill, Liverpool Wallgrove Road			Brisbane , Newcastle , Canberra WestLink
Caltex Service Center	107.5	34.5	Caltex Service Center
Blacktown Reservoir Road	108	34	Blacktown Reservoir Road
Blacktown, Seven Hills Prospect Highway	109	33	Blacktown, Seven Hills Prospect Highway
Smithfield, Wentworthville, Hornsby , Cumberland Highway	114	28	Smithfield, Wentworthville, Hornsby , Cumberland Highway
South Wentworthville, Westmead Coleman Street	116	26th	no exit
Merrylands, Parramatta Burnett Street	118	24	no exit
no exit	120	22nd	Parramatta , Auburn , Villawood Church Street Parramatta Road Woodville Road
Seven Hills, Windsor James Ruse Drive	121	21st	Seven Hills, Windsor James Ruse Drive
FORMER TOLL POINT	123	19th	FORMER TOLL POINT
Newcastle , Hornsby , Carlingford, Bankstown, Menai, Wollongong Silverwater Road	124	18th	Newcastle , Hornsby , Carlingford, Bankstown, Menai, Wollongong Silverwater Road
no exit	125	17th	Homebush Bay Hill Road
Hurstville, Ryde , Mona Vale Homebush Bay Drive / Centenary Drive	127	15th	Mona Vale , Ryde , Hurstville Homebush Bay Drive / Centenary Drive
no exit	129	13	Concord, Strathfield Concord Road
Start of the Western Motorway from Parramatta Road	130	12	End of Western Motorway further than Parramatta Road to Sydney

source

• Steve Parish: Australian Touring Atlas . Steve Parish Publishing. Archerfield QLD 2007, ISBN 978-1-74193-232-4 , pp. 22 + 25.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Western Motorway (M4) Ozroads. Retrieved August 29, 2008
2. ↑ Historical photos of the Western Motorway. Ozroads. Retrieved August 29, 2008
3. ↑ Photos of today's Western Motorway. Ozroads. Retrieved August 29, 2008
4. ^ Western Motorway (M4) Construction . Ozroads. Retrieved August 29, 2008
5. ^ The M4 Motorway - a history and exit guide . Geocities. Retrieved on August 29, 2008 ( memento of October 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
6. ^ M4 East Extension . Roads and Traffic Authority. Retrieved on August 29, 2008 ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ RTA Traffic Webcams . Roads and Traffic Authority. Retrieved August 29, 2008