AUSTRALIA:M2 Hills Mwy opens

Sydney’s fifth toll facility, the M2 Hills Motorway, opened May 26 and carried 46k vehicles its first day. There was no free introduction on this completely investor-built facility, which caters heavily to buses (on a pair of dedicated bus lanes) and allows cyclists also on bike lanes.

The new highway stretches 21km from Old Windsor Road, Seven Hills to Epping Road, North Ryde and has 9 interchanges (many partial), 29 bridges and a 460m long under-park tunnel section. Generally east-west in orientation it winds through pretty rolling and heavily treed suburbs northwest of the center of Sydney and constitutes a major regional distributor. It improves access to the city’s third university, Macquarie, which it skirts. It is also a commuter route to the major employment hub of North Sydney and to the northern approaches to the central business destrict via the Sydney Harbor bridge and tunnel crossing — though there is a missing link through Lane Cove of about 3.5km at its eastern end. This is a surface arterial with 6 signalled intersections that is planned to be replaced one day by tunneled roadway. The popularity of the highway has increased pressure for extending the road westward as well.

Cyclists riot: Mid-June about sixty cyclists staged an anti-toll protest in which they attempted to block the motorway to car traffic. As motorists attempted to drive slowly past them, cyclists kicked and beat on cars and yelled abuse. TV cover of the incident did the cyclists no good if the response to talk radio was any indication, and tolls-on-bikes continue.

Political support for the road was gained with aggressive marketing and PR including community events and other hoopla. The toll road company popularized a new piece of Australian slang saying that the opening of the road would end “rat runs” (high-speed dashes by cars and trucks through suburban streets. )

There are 26km of noise walls and 120,000 native plants were used in landscaping. It has 4 bus stops along its western part, separate bus lanes and dedicated ramps that lead to a bus/rail transfer. Cost was $470m. Tolling is done at a barrier plaza near the eastern end where the toll for cars is $1.80 and at ramp plazas to the west where the toll is 70c. Active electronic transponders from AT/Comm of Boston are in use carrying the local trade name T-PASS. It is similar to systems on the Illinois and Maine pikes in the US and on the Gateway Bridge in Brisbane and operates in the 900 MHz band. The plazas also have coin machines and attendants. The road is owned by The Hills Motorway Limited and is operated and maintained by Tollaust Pty Ltd, both investor-owned companies. (Contact Steve Brien tel 61 2 9687 0520 fax 61 2 9687 0411)