M8 Motorway (Sydney)


The M8 Motorway, previously known as the New M5 during planning and construction of its first stage, is a tolled motorway in Sydney, Australia. It links the M5 Motorway at to St Peters Interchange. It consists predominantly of tunnels, including tunnel connections to the future and the future M6 Motorway. Planned and constructed as part of the WestConnex project, WestConnex tolls are applied to the motorway. It is currently the longest road tunnel in Australia.
Construction of the motorway began in July 2016 and the first stage opened on 5 July 2020 at an estimated project cost of 4.335 billion. Future stages of the M8 Motorway will open in 2023 and after 2029, to connect with the A8 in the Northern Beaches via the M4–M5 Link, Rozelle Interchange and Western Harbour Tunnel & Beaches Link.

Route

From its western end at, the route branches out of the M5 corridor and travels parallel to the M5 East. The route then curves to the north and runs parallel to Princes Highway before terminating at St Peters Interchange in, with further connections towards the Eastern Suburbs via Euston Road and Gardeners Road, and towards Sydney Airport via the proposed Sydney Gateway.
The first completed section of the M8 does not have any intermediate exits. However, tunnel connections to the future M6 Motorway towards Southern Sydney and Wollongong have already been built.
The M8 is currently marked at two lanes in each direction, with capacity for a third lane to be added if required.

St Peters Interchange

St Peters Interchange opened to traffic when M8 opened on 5 July 2020. It was built on the site of the former Alexandria Landfill waste facility.
When fully completed in 2023, the St Peters Interchange will be an interchange of five different roads, namely:
Bridges and tunnel entrances/exits to the M4–M5 Link and Sydney Gateway have already been completed when the M8 and the interchange opened. The final bridge of the St Peters Interchange was put in place in October 2019.

Exits and interchanges

Toll

Motorists are charged WestConnex distance-based tolls to use the twin tunnels. The toll charge consists of:
, the toll for a car or motorcycle along the M8 is $6.95. Tolls for heavy vehicles are triple of cars and motorcycles. Toll prices increase by 4% or the consumer price index every year, whichever is greater, until 2040, after which CPI will apply.

History

New M5

Plans to duplicate the M5 East were conceived during planning of the WestConnex project. The new road consists of separate tunnels parallel to the M5 East tunnels, and forms the main component of the second stage of WestConnex.
The New M5 had the potential to impact the critically endangered Cooks River/Castlereagh Ironbark ecological community and the green and golden bell frog, which are listed under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999. Environmental approval from the federal Minister for the Environment was granted on 11 July 2016 and construction commenced later that month. On 3 June 2020, M8 was revealed as the new name and route designation for the New M5, and it opened on 5 July 2020.

Route numbering

The M8 Motorway was first named in Section 300-2 of the Road Rules 2014, as amended in 2019, to be the tunnels between Beverly Hills and St Peters, and St Peters and. The modification report for The Crescent overpass released in April 2020 showed an image of the proposed signage "M8 North Sydney", indicating that M8 is to continue from Rozelle Interchange towards North Sydney via the Western Harbour Tunnel. The official announcement of the M8 route designation in June 2020 confirmed that M8 will further continue along the Beaches Link Tunnel and connect with the A8 in the Northern Beaches.
The next section of the M8 to open, currently known as the M4-M5 Link, is the third stage of the Westconnex project and has a long history in similar forms. It was previously known as the “M4 South” and follows much of the alignment of the Inner West Motorway which originally formed the northern end of the F6 Freeway in the 1948 Cumberland County Plan to build an inner-city bypass and link the airport and shipping terminals.