Sydney Orbital Network
Appearance
The Sydney Orbital Network is a 110-km motorway ring-road in the city of Sydney, Australia. Planning for the road began in the 1980s and the last link, the Lane Cove Tunnel, opened in March 2007. The orbital runs north from Sydney Airport past the CBD to the North Shore, west to the Hills District, south to Prestons and then east to connect with the airport. Much of the road is privately-owned and financed by tolls.
Motorways
- Cahill Expressway, no toll
- General Holmes Drive, no toll
- Southern Cross Drive, no toll
- Eastern Distributor, tolled northbound, southbound no toll
- Domain Tunnel, no toll
- Sydney Harbour Tunnel, tolled southbound, northbound no toll
- Sydney Harbour Bridge, tolled southbound, northbound no toll
- Warringah Expressway, no toll
- Gore Hill Freeway, no toll
- Lane Cove Tunnel, tolled
- M2 Hills Motorway, tolled
- Westlink M7, tolled
- M5 South Western Motorway, tolled
- M5 East, no toll
Highway links
Intercity highways are linked to the Orbital, moving traffic away from the old busy National Routes. They are:
- Pennant Hills Rd -- linking Sydney-Newcastle Freeway to M2 Motorway
- M4 Motorway -- linking Great Western Highway to Westlink M7
- M5 Motorway South -- Casula to Hume Highway
- King Georges Rd -- linking M5 Motorway to Princes Highway, Southern Freeway and Wollongong
Missing Highway links
- Link to the F3 Sydney-Newcastle Freeway -- The final stage of a motorway standard Sydney Bypass, a tunnel under Pennant Hills Rd is in the planning stages.[1]
- Link to the F6 Southern Freeway -- At present, there are no plans to complete this link as freeway standard. The only section which was built is the Captain Cook Bridge and its approaches. Land is still reserved north of this point through Sandringham, and south through the Royal National Park. This still leaves a considerable length of the corridor built out, which will require great expense to resume, or tunnel beneath.
- Marrickville Tunnel -- Proposal to link the orbital ring road at Port Botany with the M4 Motorway, to remove commercial traffic from inner west surface roads.
- M4 East -- Extension of the M4 Motorway to the Anzac Bridge. This proposal has been reviewed and cancelled following stiff community opposition, which cited encouraging additional commuter traffic into the CBD, whilst removing little commercial traffic from the area.
References on "proposed" freeway links
2. F6 extension from Mascot to Waterfall
3. Government rules out F6 Freeway toll.
External links
- Motorways and tolling
- Sydney motorways
- Paying motorway tolls
- Toll charges on Sydney toll roads
- 'Secret' $5 billion tollway to tunnel under city
- $5b secret road under Sydney
- Sydney motorways operators
The operators
1. Lane Cove Tunnel and Falcon Street Gateway
2. Westlink M7
4. M4 Motorway