Western Harbour Tunnel & Beaches Link


The Western Harbour Tunnel & Beaches Link is a planned north-south motorway in Sydney, between Burnt Bridge Creek Deviation at Balgowlah and the WestConnex at Rozelle interchange. The six-lane motorway is planned to be approximately 18 km long and to be built. It is intended to provide direct access from the Northern Beaches to the Inner West at Rozelle.
The main route consists of:
The Beaches Link and the Western Harbour Tunnel will be built as tunnels with 3 lanes each direction.
A 2.5 km branch will be built at the eastern end of Beaches Link to connect the main motorway to the Wakehurst Parkway at Seaforth, while a 2 km branch will be built at the western end of Beaches Link to connect the motorway to Gore Hill Freeway. Both branches will be two lanes each direction. Gore Hill Freeway and Wakehurst Parkway will also be upgraded to integrate with the motorway.

History

The Western Harbour Tunnel & Beaches Link is aimed at reducing the level of traffic congestion in the greater Sydney area. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel corridor currently carry 80 percent of all vehicles crossing Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River, greatly increasing traffic congestion. The Government of New South Wales has pledged $77 million in funding to evaluate the design and construction feasibility of the project. The design phase began in early April 2017 and is scheduled to be completed by mid-2018.
The Beaches Link proposal follows similarly to abandoned extensions of the Warringah Freeway in the 1960s and 1970s.
Community engagement and the environment assessment are ongoing as of 2019.

Cost

The forecast cost is $14bn.. The road is very likely to be tolled, similar all other motorway tunnels in Sydney area.