The A6 is an arterial road linking

Cumberland Highway The Cumberland Highway is a long urban highway located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The highway links the Pacific Highway (A1/B83) and Pacific Motorway ( M1) at Pearces Corner, Wahroonga in the northeast with the Hume Highway (A2 ...

at and

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former alignments of the hig ...

at , via

Lidcombe Lidcombe is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lidcombe is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Cumberland Council, with a small industrial part in the n ...

and

Bankstown Bankstown is a suburb south west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is located in the local government area of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, ...

. It was formerly designated as Metroad 6, which was one of the Sydney

Metroad Metroads were the primary road routes serving the Sydney and Brisbane metropolitan areas from the 1990s to the early 2010s. The Metroads formed a network of radial and circumferential routes throughout the cities, simplifying navigation. Metroad ...

s. The A6 provides a link from the northern suburbs to the southern suburbs, and from the Pacific Highway to the

. Some stretches such as Silverwater Road, Alfords Point Road, New Illawarra Road and Heathcote Road have very few junctions or are in (currently) rural areas, and the speed limit is therefore relaxed slightly. The A6 includes two major bridges - the Silverwater Bridge over the Parramatta River, and the

Alfords Point Bridge Alfords Point Bridge is a twin concrete and steel box girder road bridge that carries Alford Point Road as state route A6 (Sydney), A6 across the lower Georges River between Padstow Heights, New South Wales, Padstow Heights in the City of Banks ...

over the

Georges River The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, located to the south and west of Sydney, New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_ ...

Roads

Route "A6" consists of all or part of the following roads: * Marsden Road * Stewart Street * Kissing Point Road * Silverwater Road * St. Hilliers Road * Boorea Street * Olympic Drive * Joseph Street * Rookwood Road * Stacey Street * Fairford Road * Davies Road * Alfords Point Road * New Illawarra Road * Heathcote Road

History

The passing of the ''Main Roads Act of 1924'' through the

Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Each ...

provided for the declaration of Main Roads, roads partially funded by the State government through the Main Roads Board (later the Department of Main Roads, and eventually

Transport for NSW Transport for NSW, sometimes abbreviated to TfNSW, and pronounced as Transport for New South Wales, is an List of New South Wales government agencies, agency of the Government of New South Wales, New South Wales Government established on 1 Novem ...

). Main Road no. 158 was declared from Kissing Point Road in Ermington along Marsden Road to the intersection with

Pennant Hills Road Pennant Hills Road, a section of Cumberland Highway, is a major urban highway located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The road links the suburb of Wahroonga in the northeast, to the major central business district of Parramatta in the ...

in Carlingford, and Main Road No. 190 was declared from the intersection with

Great Western Highway Great Western Highway (also known as Broadway from to , Parramatta Road from Chippendale to , and Church Street through Parramatta) is a state highway in New South Wales, Australia. From east to west, the highway links Sydney with Bathu ...

, via John Street, Church Street, Railway Parade, East Street, Victoria Street and Rookwood Road to the intersection with

Hume Highway Hume Highway, inclusive of the sections now known as Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of the route ...

, on the same day, 8 August 1928. The Department of Main Roads constructed a number of defense routes during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, including Heathcote Road and a new road (called New Illawarra Road) between Lucas Heights and Heathcote Road, bypassing the causeway crossing of the Woronora River at The Needles; these projects were completed during 1941. The Olympic Drive project into Lidcombe under the railway lines to connect to Bridge Street was completed in 1955, with the route realigned along it to reach

via St Hilliers Road instead. It was extended further north along Silverwater Road from Lidcombe via Silverwater to Ermington when the Silverwater Bridge over the

Parramatta River The Parramatta River is an intermediate tide-dominated, drowned valley estuary located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. With an average depth of , the Parramatta River is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour, a branch of Port Jackson. S ...

was completed in 1962. A new bridge over the railway line east of Bankstown connecting both halves of Stacey Street was completed in 1970, and the completion of

over the

in 1973 extended the route further south from Padstow to Lucas Heights. The route was allocated State Route 45 in 1974, from

Victoria Road Victoria Road may refer to: Roads * Victoria Road, Adelaide, Australia * Victoria Road, Sydney, Australia * Victoria Road, Cambridge, England * Victoria Road, Oxford, England * Victoria Road, Kensington, London, England * Victoria Road, Hong ...

in to

in . State Route 45 underwent further realignments. The Lidcombe bypass, connecting a new alignment from Victoria Street to Olympic Drive where it met at Bridge Street, opened in 1982 and State Route 45 was rerouted onto the bypass. In 1996, the Silverwater Road extension from Ermington to Dundas opened and State Route 45 was extended along Stewart Street and Marsden Road to

(

). In 1999 Stacey Street was extended north to directly connect with Rookwood Road, obviating the need for State Route 45 traffic to use the

between these two roads. State Route 45 was replaced by Metroad 6 in January 1999. The northern terminus of Metroad 6 was the Marsden Rd/

intersection in Carlingford. When the then Metroad 7 was reassigned from

to the

Westlink M7 The Westlink M7 or M7 Motorway, formerly Western Sydney Orbital, is a tolled urban motorway in Sydney and is a part of the Sydney Orbital Network. Owned by the NorthWestern Roads (NWR) Group, it connects three motorways: M5 South-West Motor ...

motorway when it was opened in December 2005, Metroad 6 was extended northwards to the M2 Hills Motorway. Metroad 6 was realigned between Menai and Barden Ridge, from Old Illawarra Road onto New Illawarra Road, which was completed between 2005 and 2011 as part of the Bangor Bypass project. With the conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in 2013, Metroad 6 was replaced with route A6, with the

section of Metroad 6 redesignated as part of route A28.

Future

In 2019, the New South Wales Government announced it would rename the northern extension of the Princes Motorway, between Arncliffe and Kogarah (due to open in 2025) to the "M6 Motorway". No announcement has yet been made on whether the A6 will be renumbered to avoid duplicate numbers.

References

{{Road infrastructure in Sydney Sydney Metroads

Roads

History

Future

See also

References