The F3-M2 Missing Link - last week's Infrastructure NSW report was a good sign

For those who want to see the ‘missing link’ between the F3 and the M2 built as soon as possible, last week’s Infrastructure NSW Report is very good news.  The report ranks it as the third highest priority motorway in NSW, following completion of the M4 and M5 upgrades. 

It goes on to say that the NSW Government has received an unsolicited proposal for the F3-M2 “which proposes developing this link without the need for any public support.”

Some media commentary in recent days suggests that the Infrastructure NSW report was disappointing as far as the F3-M2 is concerned.  I disagree.  I’ll explain why in a moment – but first, let’s briefly review the need for the F3-M2 and the recent history of the issue. 

Pennant Hills Road is consistently one of the slowest, most unsafe and heavily trafficked arterial roads in Sydney.  Over 10,000 trucks each day travel on it; morning peak travel speeds are as low as 27 kilometres per hour.

The key reasons is clear from the map below, extracted from the INSW Report.

The F3 is a freeway running north from Wahroonga up to the Central Coast and Newcastle.  The M2 is a freeway which runs west and connects (via the M7) to the M4 (running West to the Blue Mountains) and the Hume Highway (running southwest to Canberra and Melbourne.)  But for eight kilometres between the F3 and M2, the only link is Pennant Hills Road – meaning that large volumes of long distance and truck traffic are forced onto Pennant Hills Road. 

Over that eight kilometre stretch (with 22 traffic lights) that long distance traffic battles with local traffic.  This has a huge impact on the local communities (including parts of my electorate of Bradfield) through which Pennant Hills Road passes.   Their local connecting road is horribly congested.  Its relentless traffic is a barrier splitting one part of the community from the other part.  The noise and air quality impacts are heavy.  It is also a frustrating and time consuming exercise for the long distance traffic – taking some 10 to 20 minutes more than the journey would take on a freeway standard road.   

Proposals to build this “Missing Link’ motorway have been under consideration for over a decade.  Engineering firm Sinclair Knight Merz, commissioned to do a study in 2004, found significant benefits.  Apart from benefits for users of the road, there were also major benefits for the local community, including reduced noise for 94% of residents and air quality improvements by removing stop-start conditions and allowing ventilation of emissions.

A review conducted in 2007 by former judge Mahla Pearlman recommended that the preferred option was a tunnel to run underneath Pennant Hills Road (the ‘Type A Purple Option’).  The most recently published NSW Government estimate of the cost of this new road is $4.75 billion.  The Pearlman Review gave a somewhat lower cost estimate, at $3.2 billion.

Unfortunately since 2007 there has been little progress.  Last year, federal Labor even removed from forward budget estimates $150 million which had previously been set aside for a feasibility study.  (Curiously, although the money was not restored in this year’s budget, Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said this year on Sydney radio that the $150 million remained available to support the project.)

Earlier this year, however, there was an encouraging new development.  Motorway operator Transurban (owners of the M2 and part owners of the M7) lodged an ‘unsolicited proposal’ with the NSW Government to build the F3-M2 Missing Link – following the route recommended in the Pearlman Review.  This was the best indicator of a way forward for many years.

Which brings me back to why I think the Infrastructure NSW Report is good news for those who want to see the F3-M2 Missing Link built quickly.  The unsolicited proposal  is referred to approvingly in the report; it notes that Infrastructure NSW along with other NSW Government agencies is presently reviewing the proposal.

In comments made by Infrastructure NSW chair Nick Greiner after the Report was released, he was even more bullish:

Construction of the West Connex motorway and the F3-M2 tunnel could begin before the 2015 election, Infrastructure NSW boss Nick Greiner said yesterday… Mr Greiner and INSW chief executive Paul Broad said an F3-M2 tunnel could be entirely privately funded and tolled, allowing work to begin soon.  Daily Telegraph, 4 October 2012

More needs to happen before we can be certain the proposal will go ahead.  In particular, the assessment being made by the NSW Government will look at the details of the tolling mechanism which Transurban has proposed.  But one thing seems quite clear: unless the F3-M2 Missing Link is funded by tolls, we are not likely to get it for a very long time. 

That is evident amongst other things from the Infrastructure NSW Report, which finds that there is very little additional money to spend on new infrastructure, and what there is to spend will be directed first to WestConnex (the new motorway designed to both complete the M4 and relieve pressure on the M5) in priority to F3-M2.  (While I don’t know, I have a suspicion that one reason Infrastructure NSW recommended WestConnex ahead of F3-M2 was that they had seen enough of Transurban’s proposal for the F3-M2 to be confident it could happen without government help.  By contrast, WestConnex definitely requires a contribution of public funds.) 

I haven’t seen the confidential details of Transurban’s proposal – although I did receive a general briefing from Transurban last week.  The NSW Government will need to assess the proposal and determine whether it represents value for NSW taxpayers and future road users.  However, based on what is publicly known, I am strongly of the view that Transurban’s unsolicited proposal is far and away the most immediate prospect for the F3-M2 missing link to be built.

Some locals say they would prefer that there be a second north south road built well to the west of Pennant Hills Road.  I certainly agree that this makes sense as a long term aspiration – but I see no realistic prospect of such a road being built for at least twenty years.  It would be considerably more expensive than a tunnel under Pennant Hills Road – and as it would need to go through national park, the environmental and planning processes would take much longer to resolve.

In my view, getting the F3-M2 Missing Link built quickly will deliver big benefits.  The benefits for long distance and truck traffic is clear; but for my constituents in Bradfield the reduction in congestion on their local roads will be a huge prize. Importantly, unlike the bad old days of the NSW Labor Government, there will be no deals done to reduce the lanes on the surface road (such as Lane Cove Road once the Lane Cove Tunnel was built), and Transurban tells me its unsolicited bid does not require or assume this.

Once the Missing Link is built, Pennant Hills Road will be much less congested: according to Transurban around 50 per cent of the traffic on the road today will move to the new freeway link.  The Missing Link will also take traffic off the Pacific Highway which runs north-south, right down the middle of the electorate of Bradfield.  Traffic which today comes off the F3 at Wahroonga and travels along the Pacific Highway to the lower north shore or the city will find it much quicker to stay on the motorway and travel via the M2.

So even if my constituents don’t want to use the new road themselves, and don’t way to pay a toll, they will get a clear and immediate benefit. Of course, if they do want to pay the toll, they will get a quicker connection onto Sydney’s motorway network and all the points it connects to.

For all these reasons, I’m a strong supporter of the F3-M2 Missing Link being built as quickly as possible – and I am encouraged by last week’s Infrastructure NSW report and by the Transurban unsolicited bid. There’s a long way to go – but the signs are encouraging.