M2 Hills Motorway
Template: Infobox several high-level roads / maintenance / AU -M
States:
New South Wales
The Hills Motorway is a highway in the northern suburbs of Sydney in the east of the Australian state of New South Wales. The toll road connects the Lane Cove Tunnel in North Ryde with the Old Windsor Road and the Westlink in Baulkham Hills.
History
Before the construction of this road, the western suburbs of Sydney were not sufficiently connected to the city center. The traffic ran through Parramatta and Victoria Road and the Western Motorway to the center of Sydney. Although Parramatta in 1986 received a complete ring road, but the traffic at peak hours accumulated regularly in the Victoria Road and all other western tributaries to the city center.
The Hills Motorway should the Old Windsor Road at Baulkham Hills connect with the Epping Road, North Ryde, bypassing the busy western suburbs of the city. The Epping Road in turn connects to the Gore Hill Freeway at Artarmon, which then leads over the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the city center of Sydney.
In the planning phase was conducted today as Hills Motorway freeway corridor F2 ( also Northwest Freeway ). As part of the integrated highway planning for Sydney from 1942 should the F2 to the Gladesville Bridge and then continue on roadways in high position by Drummoyne to ANZAC Bridge. The already reserved for this purpose plots were sold off in 1988 by the government of New South Wales. This is the reason for the road running from the Gladesville Bridge to Hunters Hill and the green belt north to the eastern end of the Hills Motorways. Evidence of the old route of the F2 can be found in old city plans, the Western Distributor, the ANZAC Bridge connects the city center, as Northwest Freeway is designated.
The intersection of Epping Road and Pittwater Road should be an important node point of " Sydney's Missing Roads " (Eng.: still to be built connecting roads for Sydney ) once his, until one gave in 1977 the plans for a North Western Expressway and Lane Cove Valley Expressway.
An Investigation and Planning Commission under the chairmanship of John Woodward called in July 1990 that the proposed highway (F2, construction phase 1) between Pennant Hills Road at Beecroft and Epping Road should not be built in Ryde. Response, the government of New South Wales conducted a study on the influence of the expressway on the environment and announced in May 1993 to an operator model for this road. The M2 Hills Motorway is privately financed. The government of New South Wales entered into an agreement with the Hills Motorway Ltd. for the construction, operation, and finally handing over the road to the government in 45 years.
At its opening on May 26, 1997, the Hills Motorway was the first road in Australia with an electronic toll. In April 2007, Transurban announced that the Hills Motorway would be called toll-free from 1 December 2007. The toll exemption was but actually only on 30 January 2012.
In April 2007, was released a third lane to the west on the existing bicycle and emergency lane between the Lane Cove Tunnel and the intersection of Beecroft Road. There were objections of cyclists who now have to use a different approach and by motorists who said the additional lane would only attract more traffic and shift the bottleneck further west. Also, a surveillance camera for the speed limit of 70 km / h was installed before the tunnel at the Epping Road / Norfolk Road.
The Lane Cove Tunnel was opened on 25 March 2007 and binds the Hills Motorway at at Lane Cove at the Gore Hill Freeway. The West Link was opened on 16 December 2005 and binds the Hills Motorway at Casula on the South Western Motorway.
Course
The Hills Motorway closes in North Ryde, Lane Cove River on directly to the Lane Cove Tunnel ( Met -2 ) and first heads to the northwest by Macquarie Park and Epping. Then he swings to the west by Beecroft, Carlingford and Baulkham Hills to connect to the Westlink (M7 ) and the Old Windsor Road (Met -2).
Intersections and connections
Future
A bypass of Sydney on Highway standard has stood for decades in the national highway plan. Now there are plans to release a new UNDERGROUND road from Hills Motorway near the intersection with Pennant Hills Road to the Sydney - Newcastle Freeway north to build the Pearce 's Corner, Wahroonga.
A report by the Ryde City Council has criticized the lack of direct connections to the Hills Motorway in Macquarie Park. In addition to additional entrances and exits at various points improve the access road and avoid traffic jams. In particular, the report proposes negotiations between Transurban and the road authority for the construction of the eastern entrances to the Lane Cove Road. The proposed ramp to the east of Lane Cove Road would help avoid traffic congestion the traffic from Pymble to downtown and simplify the difficult path of the Epping Road across four lanes to the Lane Cove Tunnel. The necessity of this measure has already been mentioned in the report to the Director General 2002 on the then proposed Lane Cove Tunnel. However, the road traffic authorities responded to requests from the Ryde City Council for additional driveways in connection with the tunnel project is not.
Currently, the Hills Motorway is being expanded since January 2011. The measures should be completed by early 2013 and include additional driveways, eg at the Windsor Road to the east.