Pat’s Point of View

I’m a bit of a history nut—ancient, modern, local, it all fascinates me. In particular history that has some link to the present (hence my love of castles and the like), or that is unknown to most people (especially local history, names of places for instance).

One characteristic that touches on both of these aspects is when something is unfinished or abandoned. Things like disused underground railway stations, old tram systems, ruins of buildings or incomplete public infrastructure works really pique my interest. It’s terribly sad and I hate to admit it but I can get terribly obsessed with roads.

You see, Sydney had massive major road plans in the past, but unfortunately something often got in the way of these impressive engineers works:

• Warringah Freeway: ever wonder why when heading north over the Harbour Bridge you hit a lovely freeway-like bit of road for a few kilometres then it kinda ends? That’s because they didn’t finish what was meant to be a monster freeway going all the way to the Manly area (hence the name). This bad boy would have been truly grand, and would have gone north to cross Middle Harbour from Castlecrag to Seaforth then onto the Burnt Bridge Creek Deviation (the only other freeway grade part ever built). Imagine no more chugging along Military Road through Neutral Bay, Mosman and the Spit!
• Northwest Freeway: more road that looks suspiciously like a freeway, Victoria Road over the Gladesville bridge, a few more bridges and then up Burns Bay Road. It’s mostly six lanes. Well, this was meant to be the start of a freeway (also known as the Castlereagh Freeway) going from the City (using Anzac bridge and meeting up with the M4 East) to Castlereagh in Sydney’s far west. Eventually the M2 and M7 were built (which together go most of the way) but the start and end of the whole route were never finished. Since the M2 is now being linked to the Warringah and Gore Hill Freeways via the Lane Cove Tunnel there’s no need. What a shame. Equally fascinating is the fact that this would have also been connected to the F3 to Newcastle, instead we have to use Pennant Hills Road as the link.
• M4 East: The plan was to link the M4 motorway to the City West Link and then on to Anzac Bridge. This would give uninterrupted freeway from the city (and eastern suburbs) all the way to the mountains. Of course this one would probably mean a great big tunnel under where I now live, or something equally bothersome, but it would be an impressive road.
• And there are plenty more Sydney ‘ghost roads’. A fascinating piece of evidence for many of these aborted plans exists in the form of land reservation (where the government reserves the land it needs to build a freeway). It’s easy to spot the huge line of vacant land snaking its way through the suburbs using satellite photos. At the time of writing this the partially constructed M7 (and reserved land further down the route) can be seen using Google Maps.

Even in the face of logic, something inside me is screaming “Just finish it!”. Most of these planned works would be brilliant if completed, forming a very impressive network of freeways (all interconnected) and would eradicate horrific traffic on existing roads (just think Military Road or Parramatta Road during peak hour). They said they would build it, why don’t they just build it? Arrgh!

If you’ve read this far and think I’m bizarre, think of my poor wife who has to listen to me rant about freeways, bridges, forts and trams. Like how the former tram system in Sydney has shaped the roads we use today; Anzac Parade, Great North Road to name but two. “Look honey, you can see where the tracks were!”

Anyway…I could go on and on :)

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