Anzac Bridge is a link in the unfinished freeway
North West Freeway
The North West Freeway was a planned freeway route intended to link the Sydney CBD to its north-western suburbs, and ultimately the F3 Freeway to Newcastle. The route was planned as early as 1962 (even providing a proposed freeway "dotted line" in the first UBD street directory of 1964), with the section from Fig Tree Bridge to Gladesville Bridge and the Western Distributor being the only completed sections. Work on stage one, from Ultimo to Pyrmont Bridge Road, began in 1974. 12 People were arrested during protests in Ultimo against the expressway, and the Whitlam government threatened to cut off $42 billion in road funding if the NSW government continued with construction. As a result, construction was suspended. The Wran Government cancelled the project in 1977, as a part of a change in government policy regarding freeways.
Route of the city end of the North West Freeway as far as Gladesville Bridge
The original route was to start at the Western Distributor, at the estern end of which would be an interchange. From the interchange, which was to be built on the site of Wentworth Park, a new Western Freeway would be built from Ultimo to Concord, linking the city to the Western Motorway (M4). A new Southern Freeway would branch south from the interchange towards St Peters, thereby linking Princes Highway in the south to the City. The North West Freeway would banch off to the north from the interchange, connecting to Gladesville Bridge via a new elevated freeway over the suburbs of Roselle and Drummonye. A high bridge where Anzac Bridge now stands was part of the scheme.
The section of freeway from Gladesville Bridge to Fig Tree Bridge at Hunters Hill was built as planned, and completed in 1965 with the opening of Tarban Creek Bridge. The route from there, along the eastern bank of Lane Cove River to Delhi Road and Epping Road was shown on a 1984 Department of Main Roads map, but was removed by 1988 when that map was reprinted. From the intersection of Dehli and Epping Roads the M2 Hills Motorway follows the originally planned route of the Lane Cove Valley Expressway from Epping Road to Seven Hills. The Westlink M7 continues along the original route from the M2 to Dean Park, where the M7 turns south while the North West Freeway corridor continues west. The unused but still reserved corridor passes north of suburbs including Shalvey and Willmot, continuing west past Llandilo to stop abruptly near Londonderry at the foot of the Blue Mountains. The Lane Cove Valley Expressway was intended to fork from this route and pass through the Lane Cove Valley area to connect to the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway.
Tarban Creek Bridge is part of the short section of completed freeway
On the basis of a pre-election promise made by the Premier of New South Wales Neville Wran in 1976, not only were plans to build to North West, Western and Southern Freeways abandoned, all land reserved for the planned Western Expressway between Pyrmont and the current eastern termination point at Strathfield was sold off to property developers or declassified as a freeway corridor in 1977 by the State Government. The traffic congestion experienced in Sydney's inner suburbs experience today has come about as a direct result of the Governmen bowing to pressure from residents for short term gain. Unfortunately they could not see the long term benefit the planned freeways would have eventually brought to thir communities as well as the whole city.
The section of freeway from Gladesville Bridge to Fig Tree Bridge at Hunters Hill was built as planned, and completed in 1965 with the opening of Tarban Creek Bridge. The route from there, along the eastern bank of Lane Cove River to Delhi Road and Epping Road was shown on a 1984 Department of Main Roads map, but was removed by 1988 when that map was reprinted. From the intersection of Dehli and Epping Roads the M2 Hills Motorway follows the originally planned route of the Lane Cove Valley Expressway from Epping Road to Seven Hills. The Westlink M7 continues along the original route from the M2 to Dean Park, where the M7 turns south while the North West Freeway corridor continues west. The unused but still reserved corridor passes north of suburbs including Shalvey and Willmot, continuing west past Llandilo to stop abruptly near Londonderry at the foot of the Blue Mountains. The Lane Cove Valley Expressway was intended to fork from this route and pass through the Lane Cove Valley area to connect to the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway.
Tarban Creek Bridge is part of the short section of completed freeway
On the basis of a pre-election promise made by the Premier of New South Wales Neville Wran in 1976, not only were plans to build to North West, Western and Southern Freeways abandoned, all land reserved for the planned Western Expressway between Pyrmont and the current eastern termination point at Strathfield was sold off to property developers or declassified as a freeway corridor in 1977 by the State Government. The traffic congestion experienced in Sydney's inner suburbs experience today has come about as a direct result of the Governmen bowing to pressure from residents for short term gain. Unfortunately they could not see the long term benefit the planned freeways would have eventually brought to thir communities as well as the whole city.