Heathcote Road is a 24.5 km arterial road connection between the M5 Motorway and A1 Princes Highway.
Heathcote Road links Southern Sydney, Greater Parramatta and Liverpool. It also connects motorists from the Illawarra region to the Sydney Metropolitan area.
The existing road is primarily a two-lane, two- way road with limited separation of opposing traffic flows. It also has poor sight lines for drivers and narrow shoulder widths.
The current road capacity and design is leading to congestion, poor reliability and safety issues, particularly around key intersections. Several sections of Heathcote Road have minimal overtaking opportunities.
In the five years between 2013 and 2018, there were 343 crashes along this corridor. Between 2013 and 2019, there were seven fatal crashes on Heathcote Road.
Road traffic on Heathcote Road is forecast to grow by over 30% by 2031, which is likely to worsen these problems.
The 2019 Australian Infrastructure Audit found that road safety performance is not on track to meet the objectives of the National Road Safety Strategy.
Potential options to address the proposal include:
- widening existing lanes, medians and road shoulders
- improving horizontal and vertical alignments
- adding lanes to support more traffic
- improving active transport infrastructure.
Proponent to identify and analyse potential investment options (Stage 2 of Infrastructure Australia’s Assessment Framework).