It was one of Sydney’s most controversial roads long before digging even started almost a decade ago, but as the final stage of Westconnex opens, planners remain split as to whether the tunnelling megaproject has transformed the harbour city in the way it was meant to.
Thanks to Westconnex, Sydneysiders can now drive from the Blue Mountains on the western fringe of the city to the Sydney Harbour Bridge without encountering a traffic light, while commuters from the western suburbs are set to have their trips to the CBD slashed by up to 20 minutes.
However, residents endured years of noise, roadworks, heritage home demolitions and even protests to build the motorway and, despite all the pain during construction, drivers will still have to pay a hefty toll each time they use it.
The final piece of Westconnex opening imminently, the Rozelle Interchange, is a spaghetti junction deep under Sydney’s inner-west that connects the M4-M8 Link, the Iron Cove Bridge and the Anzac Bridge.
The 24km of tunnels represent one of the world’s most complex underground road projects. One-third of the tunnels are ventilation and electrical passages that won’t carry any vehicles, with the exhaust tower system used to funnel traffic underground and make surface level roads more peaceful.
While 100,000 vehicles are expected to drive through the Rozelle Interchange each day, Westconnex’s goal of reducing traffic on other roads will take some time to realise.
In fact, the New South Wales government is bracing for up to six months of increased congestion resulting from driver confusion and wrong turns until Sydneysiders get used to the new tunnel network.
The project was meant to cost $10bn when it was announced in 2012 but the price has ballooned to more than $20bn, a NSW auditor general’s report found. Billions more could need be spent on related roadworks to deal with changed traffic flows resulting from Westconnex, a City of Sydney analysis predicted.
Funding from federal and state governments throughout the project’s life meant the construction bill proved to be a non-issue. Westconnex is now fully owned by a private consortium, with tolling giant Transurban having a 50% stake of the tolling concession that will keep the motorway a paid road until 2060.
Car drivers will have to pay a maximum of $11.11 each way if they drive the full length from Parramatta to the city and less for smaller sections. The fee for trucks is triple that. The toll will rise each year by at least 4% or the rate of inflation – whichever is higher.
The conditions of the tolling contract mean that by 2060 Sydneysiders are set to fork out $64bn travelling through Westconnex, out of a total toll spend of $123bn across all paid roads in the city, according to NSW Treasury modelling released this month.
‘More than a motorway’
When the idea for Westconnex was first put forward in a 2012 NSW Infrastructure planning review, it was recommended as a solution to several problems: a plug to a missing link on Sydney’s orbital road network; connecting the city’s west with Sydney’s “gateway” of Port Botany and the airport; and a congestion-busting solution to relieve commuters and take cars off surface roads, allowing for the “urban renewal” of tired arterial corridors, with particular mention of Parramatta Road.
The first plan was for sunken, open-cut roads below new surface-level local roads – but this was abandoned early on in favour of tunnelling after it became apparent that would be cheaper.
However, its goals remained intact. “WestConnex is intended to be more than a motorway. It is a scheme designed to act as a catalyst to renew and transform the parts of Sydney through which it passes,” the recommendation from the 2012 strategy paper said.
In reality, it is a network of new roads largely shaped by Sydney’s tricky geography, with a complexity that defies non-visual description.
Construction began in 2015, with the first two stages including the widening of the M4 between Parramatta and Homebush and a new eastern extension to Haberfield, then the M8 tunnel connecting Kingsgrove to another new interchange at St Peters. In the later stages, the two roads were linked.
The final piece of the puzzle, the Rozelle Interchange, connects the M4-M8 link with the Anzac and Iron Cove bridges, and a future western harbour tunnel.
However, the commitment to regenerate Parramatta Road – like so many before it – has not materialised.
The design director of Ethos Urban, Craig Allchin, who has worked on NSW government master plans for Sydney, believes the idea for Westconnex was sound at the time but not a complete solution to prepare for the city’s growth.
“Westconnex is something you might do if all public transport was sorted out. We could have done with more rail lines … The problem for Sydney is politics always gets in the way of a sensible plan.
“It was very appealing to government because you can get it off the balance sheet early by selling it, usually to Transurban, then reaping the benefit.”
At each stage, the project encountered opposition.
Works forced the acquisition of more than 200 homes, including more than 50 properties in Haberfield, a suburb where a blanket designation as a heritage conservation area otherwise bars owners from making even minor additions to their Federation-era homes. Protesters occupying homes in an effort to prevent demolitions were arrested.
Locals along the route who were already putting up with road closures, detours and clogged streets complained of incessant noise from 24-hour tunnelling works beneath their homes. They were offered noise-cancelling headphones, gift cards or temporary relocation to a hotel.
Councils along the route, including the City of Sydney, also aired their frustrations. Promises to build public green space on reclaimed land did not quell various campaigns to stop certain stages of the project, which ultimately failed.
Dr Michelle Zeibots, a senior lecturer in transport at the University of Technology Sydney, has long been critical of the modelling of projected demand used to justify Westconnex. She is sceptical of its benefits and believes the road has been “grossly over-engineered”.
While one of the stated aims of Westconnex was to push traffic underground, she believes capacity constraints on the surface roads will cause congestion on surface level roads.
“Among the original reasons given to the community for building Westconnex was that it would pull traffic and heavy vehicles off local roads… This just hasn’t happened,” Zeibots says.
Zeibots is an expert in induced traffic growth – the theory that new roads built to alleviate congestion incentivise additional car trips that in turn generate more congestion.
She believes Westconnex will encourage people who would not otherwise drive to use their cars, while at the same time the tolls will keep existing drivers on free roads.
“The congestion never goes away,” she says, other than through building public transit that operates to a fixed speed with a high capacity.
Martin Locke, of the University of Sydney’s institute of transport and logistics studies, broadly believes the road has resolved key shortcomings of the city’s network.
“The whole idea is not about bringing people to the city, but transporting them around Sydney … It seemed to be quite a good idea,” Locke says, though he notes resulting bottlenecks around Haberfield have already pushed the state into planning more roads, including the western harbour tunnel.
Pricing is ‘inefficient and immature’
The effect Westconnex’s pricing will have on its success is unclear.
Zeibots is extremely critical of the terms of the toll concession.
“Westconnex locks businesses and future generations into a massively expensive situation that will impact generations to come,” she says. “What’s the opportunity cost of that? It’s a good question to ask during a cost of living crisis. How are these toll increases helping keep a lid on inflation?”
The Minns state government is also acutely aware of the potential for frustration at the cost of the toll for those who cannot avoid the road – a phenomenon it has labelled “tollmania”.
The government has announced a review of Sydney’s toll network, with the aim of spreading the burden more fairly across the northern and eastern suburbs. In the interim, it has announced a $60 a week toll cap will come into effect from January, paid back to users as a rebate.
Locke questions the conflicting incentives and disincentives of Sydney’s toll roads.
He is concerned that the cap means some drivers will reconsider taking Westconnex and other roads, but those who live further out and cannot avoid reaching the cap threshold may use it more than they otherwise would have, out of a sense that extra trips are essentially free. Yet the government would ultimately have to pay Transurban more.
“If the toll road is now free for a user once they’ve spent $60 … it creates a windfall for the concessionaires.,” Locke says. “That whole process is unsustainable.
“Would you price electricity or water on that basis? It’s inefficient and immature.
“It has created a millstone around the government’s neck.”
Regardless of the concerns, Allchin believes with toll reform the road will improve Sydney, if it effectively allows drivers and efficient bus lines to travel quickly and bypass the city.
“There is a future where we might say it was a really good investment, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time.”
