The Great Western Highway connects the agricultural and mining sectors in the Central West and Orana regions with Greater Sydney and the port network in New South Wales. It forms part of the National Land Transport Network.
In 2011, 8.3 million tonnes of freight was moved to and from, and through the Central West and Orana by road and improvements will better link this freight task to ports at Botany and the new Western Sydney Aerotropolis.
The Great Western Highway currently passes through the centre of towns such as Blackheath and Mount Victoria. This leads to congestion, safety risks from heavy vehicles mixing with residential and tourist traffic, amenity impacts for residents, and additional travel costs for freight. The current alignment also limits the extent to which High Productivity Vehicles can be used along the route due to steep grades at Mt Victoria and poor horizontal alignment. Additionally, the reliability of trip times is variable as the narrow and constrained corridor does not allow for easy alternate routes if an incident occurs.
The proposal is to complete the duplication of the Great Western Highway. Over 100 km of the highway has been duplicated so far, leaving a 34 km gap between Katoomba and Lithgow. A proposed program of works related to this section of the highway, referred to as the Great Western Highway Upgrade Program, is comprised of:
- East section (from Katoomba to Blackheath)
- Central section (Blackheath to Little Hartley)
- West section (Little Hartley to Lithgow)
Infrastructure Australia has assessed the business case for upgrades to the East and West sections, which can be delivered independently of the Central section. This was assessed as a funded proposal, given the commitments already received from the Australian and NSW governments.
The proponent has completed a business case for the remaining Central section of the program, although this has not yet been assessed by Infrastructure Australia. The Central section business case is due for investment decision by NSW Government in 2023, and the proposal's Environment Impact Statement is anticipated to go on public display in early 2023