Problem

The volume of passenger and heavy vehicles on Picton Road, combined with difficult topography, is causing significant delays and safety issues on the route. This is resulting in longer travel times and high crash rates.

Picton Road connects the M1 Princes Motorway near Mount Ousley in the east, with the M31 Hume Motorway at Wilton and Picton in the west. It is a key freight connection between Port Kembla and the Illawarra with Western Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne via the Hume Motorway.

The road carries over 20,000 vehicles a day, of which approximately 22% are heavy vehicles. Traffic volumes are expected to grow along the corridor with population growth, development in Western Sydney and growth at Port Kembla.

In the five years up to September 2018, there were six fatal crashes and 25 serious injury crashes (which resulted in eight fatalities and 33 serious injuries). This is more than double the New South Wales average for the number of fatal and serious crashes per kilometre for similar type roads.

With land use changes planned at both Wilton and Greater Macarthur Growth Areas expected to deliver an additional 60,000 homes nearby by 2040, combined with the growing freight task, traffic volumes on Picton Road will continue to grow which may further impact on travel times and crash rates.

Proposed initiative

Options to address capacity and safety issues on Picton Road include:

• minor road upgrades such as providing central barriers

• upgrading intersections or adding signals

• additional capacity and overtaking opportunities.

Next steps

Proponent to identify initiatives and develop options (Stage 2 of Infrastructure Australia’s Assessment Framework).