Mona Vale Rd upgrade: Planners urged to push ahead with $100m-plus road upgrade

Authorities have been urged to stick with a planned $100m-plus road upgrade on the northern beaches and not put it on the funding backburner like the Beaches Link.

The NSW Government has been urged to push ahead with its $100m-plus upgrade of one of the northern beaches’ traffic black spots — and not put it on the infrastructure backburner.

Widening a 3.4km stretch of Mona Vale Rd, from Terrey Hills to Ingleside, to four lanes has been on NSW Transport’s drawing board for more than five years.

But last week’s decision by the government to scrap its proposed rezoning of parts of Ingleside — which would have led to 980 new homes in the area — has raised concerns the much-heralded and much-needed Mona Vale Rd (West) upgrade won’t go ahead.

Work on the $140 million Mona Vale Rd (East) upgrade is well underway. Now tansportolanners are ieng urged to mak sure Mona Vale Rd (West) goes ahead. Picture: RMS

This comes as the government recently put the proposed Beaches Link road tunnels to the northern beaches on ice to help fund other transport infrastructure projects in western Sydney.

However, it is understood there may be some funding to go towards Mona Vale Rd (West) set aside in the NSW Budget to be released on June 21.

The official Mona Vale Rd (West) project website states that planners were “continuing to prepare the detailed design … between McCarrs Creek Road, Terrey Hills, and Powder Works Road, Ingleside”.

It also stated that “construction will commence when funding becomes available”.

Work has been underway on the $140m upgrade of Mona Vale Rd (East) between Manor Rd, Ingleside, and Foley St, Mona Vale for about three years.

A head-on road crash on Mona Vale Rd on a two-lane section of road at Ingleside in 2006. The upgrade of the road, with a central crash barrier would make the road safer, planners say. Picture: John Grainger

Northern Beaches mayor Michael Regan said on Tuesday that because Mona Vale Rd was an essential link for the northern beaches he would continue to encourage the government to proceed with the upgrade, regardless of the Ingleside rezoning decision.

“Mona Vale Rd provides a critical connection from the northern end of the peninsula to the growing employment hub of Macquarie Park and northern and north west Sydney,” Mr Regan said.

“This upgrade is needed to improve traffic flow and alleviate the last bottleneck on this stretch, regardless of the level of development now at Ingleside.

“As this is one of the only roads in and out of the area, it’s important it can cater for our community, now and into the future.”

Transport authorities have said the Mona Vale Rd upgrade will improve safety and travel times for the 35,000 vehicles that use it each day.

And about 83,000 cubic metres of soil and rock that is being removed from the Mona Vale Rd East project would be re-used on Mona Vale Rd West to prepare for the future road widening.

NSW Transport planners have said Mona Vale Road West “experiences congestion in peak periods and requires upgrading to increase capacity and reduce travel times”.

The upgrade will include a shared path for pedestrians and cyclists and an overpass bridge and underpass tunnels to enable fauna to cross the safely between Garigal and Ku-ring-gai National Parks.

Other proposed features included:

* a central concrete safety barrier;

* traffic lights at the turn off to Kimbriki tip;

* relocating the intersection of Mona Vale Rd and Tumburra St to the west by about 40m and changing access to left turn in and left turn out only;

* closing the existing intersection at Mona Vale Rd and Addison Rd to general traffic:

* upgrading street lighting

*constructing retaining walls and/or sandstone cuttings along the alignment

The Mona Vale Rd East upgrade was expected to be completed in 2022, weather permitting.

For more information on Mona Vale Rd West click here.