Highways in New South Wales

Highways of New South Wales

This is a list of highways in New South Wales, Australia. The present highway network in New South Wales was established in August 1928 when the Country Roads Board (the predecessor of the Department of Main Roads and the Roads and Traffic Authority) superseded the 1924 main road classifications and established the basis of the existing NSW main road system. (the full list of main roads gazetted appears in the NSW Government Gazette of 17 August 1928). The number of a road for administrative purposes is not the same as the route number it carries eg. the Great Western Highway is state highway 5 for administrative purposes but is signposted as part of national route 32.)

Unlike other countries which use numbers, highways in New South Wales are identified by names related to explorers of the early 1800s, or politicians or regional names. Since 1954 most NSW highways have carried a national route number, but these are not generally known or used, with the exception of Highway 1, which is assigned to the highways which follow the Australian mainland coast, and route 31 (the Hume Highway), which connects Sydney and Melbourne. Oddly, a second national route 1 runs from Hobart to Burnie in Tasmania.

The major interstate highways in Australia have been designated as part of the National Highway network, which means that the national government funds their maintenance and upgrading, whilst the states undertake the actual work.

National highway routes in New South Wales include the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne, the New England Highway between Newcastle and Brisbane, and the Federal and Barton Highways, which link Canberra to the Hume Highway. The coastal Highway 1 route is not part of the National Highway network other than the section between Sydney and Newcastle.

To supplement the national route number system, a state route number system was introduced from 1971 onwards, covering urban arterial routes and rural non-highway arterial routes. The five-sided national route number shield (black on white on state-funded highways and gold on green on nationally-funded highways) was chosen as it is the same shape as the Australian national coat of arms. The white on blue state route shields replicate those first used in Victoria and later used in most other states.

In most cases where freeways have been built to replace lengths of highways as the main route, the superseded lengths of the highwys have been renumbered as state routes eg Pacific Hwy Wahroonga-Ourimbah renumbered from national route 1 to state route 83 and Warnervale-Hexham from national route 1 to state route 111, Princes Hwy Bulli Tops-Yallah from national route 1 to state route 60, Great Western Highway Strathfield-Emu Plains from national route 32 to state route 44.

Most NSW highways are two-lane, undivided roadways, with relatively few lengths of dual carriageway. Only relatively short lengths of the dual carriageway are true freeways with restricted access points and grade-separated interchanges. Today 90% of the NSW section (and 100% the Victorian section) of the Hume Highway is dual carriageway, 100% of the Hume Highway will be dual carriageway achieved by 2012 and today 40% of the Pacific Highway (Australia) is dual carriageway, 100% of the Pacific Highway will be dual carriageway achieved by 2016. Dual carriageways are at the following locations; Hexham-south of Buladelah (north of Myall Way, construction is underway) ^[1], Buladelah bypass (planning approval granted) ^[2]^[3] [2] [3] [4] [5] , north of Buladelah-Coopernook (north of Coopernook-Herons Creek, construction is underway) ^[4] and Herons Creek-Port Macquarie ^[5], Eungai Deviation 2nd Carriageway ^[6], Raleigh Deviation ^[7], Bonville Bypass (in construction) ^[8], Coffs Harbour Bypass (planning) ^[9], Ballina Bypass (pre-construction activities) ^[10], Bangalow Bypass Duplication ^[11] and between the Ewingsdale Interchange (Byron Bay exit) to Brisbane ^[12] (including Tugun Bypass ^[13] and Banora Point/Sextons Hill (undergoing EIS and SIS) ^[14]).

New South Wales is slowly preparing to introduce an alpha-numeric route code system - new signs are being fitted with such route numbers with a coverplate carrying the existing route number being fitted over the top. There has been no announcement from the Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW yet as to when this official changeover will take place.