The cost of congestion and poor access to and from Sydney’s Northern Beaches is significant. The Northern Beaches is connected to the rest of Greater Sydney by three transport corridors: Mona Vale Road, Warringah Road and Military Road /Spit Road. All three corridors experience significant levels of congestion and long and unpredictable travel times.
Residents of the Northern Beaches rely heavily on private vehicles and public buses for travel. Public transport travel times can be long and unreliable.
The 2019 Australian Infrastructure Audit ranks the North Sydney–Northern Beaches Corridor as the fourth most congested corridor in Sydney’s evening peak periods during 2016, and forecast seventh most congested in 2031, as measured by total vehicle delays.
Potential options for addressing the identified problems focus on a motorway connection from the Warringah Freeway and the Gore Hill Freeway at Artarmon to Balgowlah and Killarney Heights, and an upgrade of the Wakehurst Parkway.
The proposal includes an access road connection at Balgowlah and complementary intersection modifications.
This proposal is expected to benefit freight, public transport and private vehicle users.
This proposal was captured under the previous broader listing for Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link .
The Northern Beaches (A8) corridor capacity: Seaforth to Mona Vale Early Stage Proposal is separately included on the Infrastructure Priority List to address the part of the congestion problem in the Northern Beaches from Seaforth to Mona Vale.
Proponent to complete business case development (Stage 3 of Infrastructure Australia’s Assessment Framework).