The Hunter Expressway is a long
controlled-access highway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...
in
New South Wales
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, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, Australia. It was previously known as the F3 to Branxton link or Kurri Kurri Corridor during the planning stage. It has two lanes in each direction, running generally north west from the
Pacific Motorway at the
Newcastle Link Road interchange to the eastern end of the Belford Bends Deviation on the
New England Highway
New England Highway is an long highway in Australia running from Yarraman, north of Toowoomba, Queensland at its northern end to Hexham at Newcastle, New South Wales at its southern end. It is part of Australia's National Highway system, an ...
north of
Branxton. The road allows traffic to bypass the
Maitland area,
Lochinvar
Lochinvar (or Lan Var) is a loch in the civil parish of Dalry in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumfries and Galloway Scotland. It is located in the Galloway Hills, around north-east of St. John's Town of Dalry. The loch formerl ...
,
Greta and Branxton. The expressway opened on 22 March 2014.
History
What is now the Hunter Expressway was originally proposed in 1988 under the name Kurri Kurri Corridor. While the road design approved in 2001 was for a speed limit of , the
Roads & Traffic Authority
The Roads & Traffic Authority (RTA) was an agency of the New South Wales Government responsible for major road infrastructure, licensing of drivers, and registration of motor vehicles. The RTA directly managed state roads and provided fundin ...
applied in March 2007 to make several changes, including revising the design for a speed limit of . The New South Wales Department of Planning approved those changes on 19 August 2007.
Pre-construction work
The Roads & Traffic Authority obtained approval in July 2006 to allow the construction of the road to be staged.
This did not mean that the road would be opened in stages but that preparatory work including relocation of high voltage power lines, gas mains, telecommunication cabling, water and sewer mains and the
South Maitland Railway line could be carried out prior to commencing construction of the road. This was done because the relocation of services during road construction may have caused unpredictable delays.
The construction of a new bridge to carry the South Maitland railway line over the new road was put out to tender in 2007. However, despite the tender closing date being put back four times, the tender was not awarded.
At the time, it was anticipated that the $253 million pre-construction work would be completed in mid 2008 and construction of the road would commence immediately after the pre-construction was completed.
Funding uncertainty
Prior to the
2007 Australian federal election
The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Australian Senate, Senate were up for elect ...
, the then coalition government pledged to fund the construction of the road as part of the
Auslink II funding plan and the then opposition pledged to match the government funding commitment. On the Sunday immediately after the election, the federal member for
Hunter
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
and member of the incoming
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
government,
Joel Fitzgibbon
Joel Andrew Fitzgibbon (born 16 January 1962) is a retired Australian politician. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served in the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2022, representing the New South Wales seat of Hunt ...
, announced in an interview that he "was no longer convinced that it was the best option for the area and wanted a new independent assessment of the project." A $1 million study, titled the "Lower Hunter Transport Needs Study" was "commissioned in part to cost the bypass".
As part of the
2008 federal budget, money that the previous government had intended to spend on infrastructure during the 2008–09 budget year was instead placed into a fund while a newly created authority,
Infrastructure Australia
Infrastructure Australia is an independent statutory body providing independent research and advice to all levels of government and industry on projects and reforms relating to investment in Australian infrastructure. It advocates for reforms on ...
carried out studies to determine which projects should be funded and which should not.
Despite making no budget allocation for the road in 2007, the
Government of New South Wales
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party o ...
described the road as "critical to regional development in the Lower Hunter". In their October 2008 submission to Infrastructure Australia, the
NRMA
NRMA (formerly National Roads and Motorists' Association) is an Australian organisation offering roadside assistance, advocacy for motorists and road-users, motoring advice, car servicing, International Driving Permits, travel and other servic ...
also listed the road as one of four "Regional Road Infrastructure Priorities".
The road was recommended as a "top priority" on an interim list of 94 high priority projects presented to the minister,
Anthony Albanese
Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...
by Infrastructure Australia on 19 December 2008. A final report was due to be presented in March 2009.
Regional development
Several developments in the region, including the proposed new township of
Huntlee and new subdivisions in Branxton, Cessnock and Maitland have been described as being "held back" pending the construction of this road, since the existing road network would be unable to accommodate the increased traffic that would be generated.
A study completed in October 2008 identified an area of land at
Buchanan Buchanan may refer to:
People
* Buchanan (surname)
Places Africa
* Buchanan, Liberia, a large coastal town
Antarctica
* Buchanan Point, Laurie Island
Australia
* Buchanan, New South Wales
* Buchanan, Northern Territory, a locality
* Bucha ...
, adjacent to an interchange of the proposed link as the preferred location for a regional freight hub. The report indicated that uncertainty over the construction of the road "may delay a final decision regarding the preferred location for Freight Hub".
Construction
Following the announcement of funding in the
2009 federal budget, a decision was made to separate the road into two separate projects. The eastern section, from the M1 to Kurri Kurri, was put out to tender under an alliance agreement in July 2009. The private sector consortium selected to partner with the RTA to build that section included
Thiess,
Parsons Brinckerhoff
WSP USA, formerly WSP, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Parsons Brinckerhoff, is a multinational engineering and design firm with approximately 14,000 employees. WSP stands for Williams Sale Partnership. The firm operates in the fields of strategic con ...
and
Hyder Consulting
Hyder Consulting was a multi-national advisory and design consultancy with particular specialisation in the transport, property, utilities and environmental sectors. The firm employed approximately 4,200 people across the UK, Europe, Germany, Midd ...
. Detailed planning began in early 2010, and construction began around June 2010.
The contract for the eastern section of the Hunter Expressway was finalised at $825 million, thus allowing major construction to begin. Thiess general manager
NSW/
ACT Brendan Donohue said the project would be technically complex as the corridor included a number of possible mine subsidence areas. The eastern section of the Hunter Expressway will include of earthworks, three high viaduct bridges covering a total of over possible mine subsidence areas and 16 other bridges.
On 11 August 2010, Premier
Kristina Keneally
Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who was a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 until April 2022, when she resigned to unsuccessfully contest the House of Repre ...
, and other MPs including
Anthony Albanese
Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...
,
Kerry Hickey and Joel Fitzgibbon met at Buchanan for the
turning of the first sod.
The remaining section from Kurri Kurri to Branxton was tendered in 2010 as a design and construct contract.
Abigroup
Abigroup was an Australian construction company.
History
Abigroup was established as Graham Evans & Co in 1957 as a civil engineering company within New South Wales, being renamed Abignano in 1961. In 1981 it was listed on the Australian Securiti ...
were awarded that contract in October 2010
File:F3CoreSampling.JPG, Core sampling near M1 prior to construction
File:NewcastleLinkRdBridge.JPG, Original Newcastle Link Road bridge over M1
File:Hunter Expressway Camp Rd 120514.JPG, Camp Road Greta underpass and deviation under construction
File:Hunter Expressway construction at Belford.jpg, Construction at the Belford end of the road
Opening
The original contracted opening date was 20 September 2013, but construction delays caused the date to be deferred several times. The expressway was officially opened by Deputy Prime Minister
Warren Truss
Warren Errol Truss, (born 8 October 1948) is a former Australian politician who served as the 16th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Abbott Government and the Turnbull Governm ...
and State Roads Minister
Duncan Gay
Duncan John Gay (born 2 May 1950), an Australian politician, was the Vice-President of the Executive Council of New South Wales and the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council from May 2014 to January 2017; and the Minister for R ...
in the morning of 21 March 2014, and was opened to traffic in the evening of 22 March 2014.
Interchanges
Newcastle interchange
The most easterly interchange of the Hunter Expressway. It connects the expressway with the
Pacific Motorway and the
Newcastle Link Road. The interchange has been significantly upgraded, with three additional bridges across the M1 in addition to the existing one and the provision of high speed on and off ramps from the new road towards Sydney while maintaining full grade separation.
However motorists are unable to exit northbound to the
Pacific Motorway from the Hunter Expressway or access the Hunter Expressway when heading southbound on the Pacific Motorway. The Buchanan Interchange and John Renshaw Drive have been designated to provide access between the expressway and the Pacific Highway to the north.
Buchanan interchange
A full interchange has been provided on John Renshaw Drive near the ends of George Booth Drive and Buchanan Road. As part of the construction of that interchange, the southern end of Buchanan Road was relocated to connect to a new roundabout constructed on the site of a smaller roundabout that had previously been built at the end of George Booth Drive.
Branxton interchange
A full interchange has been constructed between Greta and Branxton, with a link to the existing highway via a new bridge across the
Main Northern railway line
The Main North Line (also known as the Great Northern Railway) is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs through the Central Coast, Hunter and New England regions. The line was the original main line between Sydney and Brisban ...
and a link to a new roundabout on Wine Country Drive south of Branxton.
New England Highway connection
The north western end of the link road crosses over the Main Northern railway line and joins onto the existing highway. When the new road opened, it became the main through road and existing highway on the northern side of Branxton was diverted to provide local access to Standen Drive.
Road junction list
See also
*
New England Highway
New England Highway is an long highway in Australia running from Yarraman, north of Toowoomba, Queensland at its northern end to Hexham at Newcastle, New South Wales at its southern end. It is part of Australia's National Highway system, an ...
*
List of freeways in Australia
*
List of highways in New South Wales
References
External links
*
{{Hunter Region places and items of interest
Highways in New South Wales
Roads in the Hunter Region