The Wesrtern Distributor at Darling Harbour. It was built as the eastern section of the M4 Western Freeway
Western Freeway
The County of Cumberland Scheme of 1948 outlined a Western Freeway linking the central businerss district of Sydney to Penrith then on to the state's west via The Blue Mountains. Two sections of the Western Freeway have been built was built, the first stretches from Penrith to Strathfield, is desgnated as the M4 Western Motorway, (also known as the M4 Motorway or simply M4), which forms part of Sydney Metroad. The second, the eastern section out of the city centre, was built only as far west as Pyrmont as part of the North West Expressway, or F3, a freeway that would connect the Sydney and Newcastle central business districts. This section is now part of the Western Distributor. From there it was to have joined with the Western Expressway, the F4, and the Southern Expressway, the F6, at an major interchange in Glebe. On the basis of a pre-election promise made by the Premier of New South Wales Neville Wran in 1976, all land reserved for the 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 proposed expressway ran through the seat held by the Premier Wran.The western section, from Penrith to Strathfield, was originally constructed in several stages as the F4 Western Freeway between the late 1960s and the mid 1980s, however a lack of funding resulted in the government of Neville Wran halting plans to construct the final stage between Mays Hill and Prospect in 1985. In December 1989 work to construct this stage began as a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer project. In return for funding construction StateWide Roads, the consortium awarded the contract to build the stage, was given permission to toll the section between James Ruse Drive and Silverwater Road as traffic volumes on this section were significantly higher than between Mays Hill-Prospect and would allow a shorter toll period with lower tolls. The concession held by StateWide Roads ended on 15 February 2010, with operation of the motorway returned to the Roads and Traffic Authority and the toll removed.
Built as a four lane motorway, it was widened to six lanes during 1998 to 2000, but this did little to ease the congestion. A major extension to the M4 has been proposed and has well-advanced plans. This extension would extend the M4 beyond its current end in Strathfield by approximately five kilometres, so that it would subsequently end in Ashfield and be continuous with the City West Link. Further planned upgrades to the City West Link would mean commuters going west out of the city could get to Parramatta without passing through traffic lights. The NSW Government recently outlined a $7 billion plan to link the M4, Victoria Road, City West Link and Sydney Airport using a network of underground tunnels.
By April 2005, the NSW state government has shelved plans for the M4 East extension, citing the need for an integrated plan for transport, but possibly to mitigate residents in affected suburbs which would have been affected by increased traffic had the M4 East link been approved. Future plans may include instead a continuous traffic-light-free link from the city's Western Distributor to the current end of the M4.
The lack of this link is currently causing major problems for any commercial traffic wishing to travel between Port Botany and the many factories and warehouses in the western suburbs. The M5 South Western Motorway does connect directly to Port Botany, but it has chronic congestion problems of its own, and doesn't provide easy access to inner western areas of Sydney. There is so much demand for this link, that traffic not only uses the designated Metroad 4 (Parramatta Road), but also several back streets to the north and south, most of which are two lane residential streets.
Western Freeway under construction
By April 2005, the NSW state government has shelved plans for the M4 East extension, citing the need for an integrated plan for transport, but possibly to mitigate residents in affected suburbs which would have been affected by increased traffic had the M4 East link been approved. Future plans may include instead a continuous traffic-light-free link from the city's Western Distributor to the current end of the M4.
The lack of this link is currently causing major problems for any commercial traffic wishing to travel between Port Botany and the many factories and warehouses in the western suburbs. The M5 South Western Motorway does connect directly to Port Botany, but it has chronic congestion problems of its own, and doesn't provide easy access to inner western areas of Sydney. There is so much demand for this link, that traffic not only uses the designated Metroad 4 (Parramatta Road), but also several back streets to the north and south, most of which are two lane residential streets.
Western Freeway under construction