The $130 million upgrade of the King Georges Road Interchange in Sydney has been completed two months ahead of schedule – making it the first completed WestConnex project
New South Wales Minister for Roads, Duncan Gay, said, “This vital enabling project for WestConnex, which has helped to create 900 jobs during construction, now has on and off ramps to the M5 widened and extended by 180m, doubling traffic capacity and easing congestion along King Georges Road.”
The King Georges Road interchange upgrade will benefit almost half of the 100,000 motorists who use the M5 every day, providing a connection to the existing M5 East and the new M5 twin underground tunnels, which will run for nine kilometres, between Kingsgrove and St Peters.
The new M5 tunnels will run roughly in parallel to the existing M5 East, more than doubling traffic capacity along the corridor, and halving the time it takes for motorists to get from Beverly Hills to St Peters down to a ten-minute trip.
Federal Member for Banks, David Coleman, said a Federal Government concessional loan of up to $2 billion has ensured construction of the WestConnex new M5 was fast-tracked, and allowed work on the King Georges Road interchange upgrade to begin early.
“While the full benefits of the interchange upgrade will be realised when the new M5 opens to traffic in 2020, motorists usually banked up on a congested King Georges Road will start seeing immediate improvement, with the lengthened on ramps to the M5 reducing queuing and improving the flow of traffic at this notorious bottleneck,” Mr Coleman said.
New South Wales Member for Oatley, Mark Coure, said motorists will see the finishing touches for the project applied, including landscaping scheduled to be completed early 2017.
“The upgrade also included extending the Coolangatta Road Bridge to accommodate the extended ramps between King Georges Road and the M5 East,” Mr Coure said.
