![]() ![]() The first stage of WestConnex – the widening of the M4 between Parramatta and Homebush – is due to be completed by 2019. This was a point made by Planning Minister Rob Stokes in a Herald opinion piece that recalled the County of Cumberland Plan for the city of 1948: “If you study the plan closely you will see the route for the WestConnex project, working its way through St Peters in a mirror image of the road being constructed today.” A motorway extension east from Concord that connects to inner west areas such as Ashfield, Glebe and Pyrmont – now under construction as part of WestConnex and to open in 2019 – has been on the planning map since the 1940s and 1950s. But it is also true that they all, in some way, respond to plans and pressures that have developed over many decades. And partly that is because of the simple mathematics of population growth: the need for the city’s 4.6 million people of 2016 to accommodate another 900,000 by 2026.įrom early next year, when a widened section of Sydney’s existing M4 motorway between Parramatta and Concord opens to traffic, barely a year will pass in the next decade that will not see the opening of a piece of infrastructure worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars.Īll the projects are controversial, and all will deliver downsides as well as benefits. Partly that is because the current construction boom is taking place after many years of neglect. Throw in another metro rail link from the central business district to Parramatta and a couple of new tram lines, and Sydney will be a city significantly transformed.īut even with the city’s capacity to move people about enhanced by the volume of construction and concrete, Sydney’s roads, trains and buses may still be struggling to cope in a decade’s time. The longest and most expensive metro rail project in the country? There’s the $20-billion-plus line under the city’s heart. In terms of length, the nine-kilometre NorthConnex will be close behind. What about the longest tunnel to drive through? That would be WestConnex as well, snaking through the west and inner western suburbs. The most expensive motorway in Australia? The $16.8 billion WestConnex. And it will have left the city with a string of superlatives. It will have demolished hundreds of homes, leaving many families seething at a painful and potentially unfair acquisition process. It will have created many kilometres of new roads and dozens of kilometres of rail. The construction program will have delivered tens of thousands of jobs to Sydney residents. Photos: Edwina Picklesīy 2026, the biggest wave of transport construction the city has seen for generations may well be petering out. Town Hall is projected to remain the CBD’s second busiest train station in 2026. ![]()
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