The Princes Highway is the primary north – south connection between Greater Sydney, the City of Wollongong, the Illawarra– Shoalhaven region and the south coast of New South Wales. It carries a mix of freight and passenger traffic for local, long-distance and tourism trips.
Between Nowra and the Victorian Border, the highway experiences congestion, has a poor safety record and has freight productivity constraints. This is caused by the challenging topography, mass-limited bridges, and the two-lane, undivided road design, which offers limited overtaking opportunities.
An average of five fatalities and 40 serious injuries per year were recorded along the corridor over the last five years. Some sections are experiencing crash rates more than double the New South Wales median fatal and serious injury crash rate.
The Australian Government released the Princes Highway Corridor Strategy in October 2019, which considers the entire length of the highway across New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The strategy identified locations between Nowra and the Victorian Border as priorities for road and bridge upgrades, additional passing opportunities and bypasses.
The proposal is for a program of works to make the corridor safer, and more efficient and accessible.
The Australian and NSW Governments have committed $2.2 billion for projects between Jervis Bay and the Victorian border. This includes funding towards the following components:
- upgrade of the Jervis Bay Road and Princes Highway intersection
- duplication of sections of the Princes Highway between Jervis Bay Road and Sussex Inlet Road
- bypass of Moruya
- a bypass of Milton and Ulladulla
- planning for upgrades to the Princes Highway between Burrill Lake and Batemans Bay.
The full duplication of sections of the Princes Highway between Jervis Bay Road and Sussex Inlet Road together with the planning for a bypass of Moruya are currently not funded.
The strategic business case (Stage 2 of Infrastructure Australia’s Assessment Framework) for the Princess Highway Upgrade Program has been completed, although it has not yet been submitted to Infrastructure Australia.
The upgrade projects with funding committed have progressed to the detailed design phase.