Changes to the third stage of the planned WestConnex motorway have been announced by Duncan Gay, Roads Minister of Australia’s New South Wales state.
The motorway tunnel will be 8km, around 1km longer than initially announced under the US$9.7 billion WestConnex project of 33km of new roads around the city of Sydney.
The changes are not likely to cost more, according to the NSW government. The third stage would cover the route between Haberfield and St. Peters and be constructed between 2018 and 2023. The tunnel will be linked to two other large motorway tunnels that include an M4 extension to Harbefield and M5 East tunnel to St. Peters.
<%$Linker:2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal Tony Shepherd, chairman of WestConnex road has said Visit www.dailytelegraph.com.au Website false http://http//www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/westconnex-is-a-late-great-leap-forward/story-fni0cwl5-1227022138438?nk=abc01955393b32ecdcef0e0d56cf5672 false false %> that without WestConnex and its supporting works, Sydney roads will grind to a halt by the end of this decade.
“WestConnex is not just a road,” Shepherd wrote in a local Sydney newspaper in August. “It’s Australia’s largest transport project unlocking $20 billion [US$16.8 billion] in economic benefits to NSW, including 10,000 new jobs. As with any great undertaking, it has attracted naysayers trying to safeguard the status quo, an ¬option this great city can’t afford.”
Shepherd wrote that WestConnex is achievable, compared to past proposals, because of “innovative financing ¬relying on a combination of state and federal funding and future private sector ¬investment and tolling”.
Works to build WestConnex will start next year with the $3.3 billion widening and extension of the M4 to four lanes each way from Parramatta to Haberfield, including a tunnel beneath -Parramatta Road.
The motorway tunnel will be 8km, around 1km longer than initially announced under the US$9.7 billion WestConnex project of 33km of new roads around the city of Sydney.
The changes are not likely to cost more, according to the NSW government. The third stage would cover the route between Haberfield and St. Peters and be constructed between 2018 and 2023. The tunnel will be linked to two other large motorway tunnels that include an M4 extension to Harbefield and M5 East tunnel to St. Peters.
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“WestConnex is not just a road,” Shepherd wrote in a local Sydney newspaper in August. “It’s Australia’s largest transport project unlocking $20 billion [US$16.8 billion] in economic benefits to NSW, including 10,000 new jobs. As with any great undertaking, it has attracted naysayers trying to safeguard the status quo, an ¬option this great city can’t afford.”
Shepherd wrote that WestConnex is achievable, compared to past proposals, because of “innovative financing ¬relying on a combination of state and federal funding and future private sector ¬investment and tolling”.
Works to build WestConnex will start next year with the $3.3 billion widening and extension of the M4 to four lanes each way from Parramatta to Haberfield, including a tunnel beneath -Parramatta Road.
