Northern Beaches Hospital roadworks: Warringah Rd underpass now open
A key construction milestone in the road upgrade around Northern Beaches Hospital — the Warringah Rd underpass that bypasses three major intersections — is officially open.
Manly
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The long-awaited Warringah Rd underpass opened at midnight Saturday.
The 1.3km “slot” is part of a $500 million upgrade to the road network around Northern Beaches Hospital at Frenchs Forest.
Up to 8m deep, the four-lane, 70km/h underpass is built below Warringah Rd and, according to the NSW Government, will allow motorists “to enjoy smoother journeys” around the hospital”.
The underpass is designed to cut journey times by avoiding traffic lights at the intersections with Wakehurst Parkway, Hilmer St and Forest Way.
State Liberal MP for Davidson, Jonathan O’Dea, conducted a low-key ribbon cutting ceremony this week, with a group of workers who helped build the underpass, in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
Mr O’Dea said that while the project was located in Liberal MP Brad Hazzard’s electorate of Wakehurst and in Davidson it was an “exciting milestone for the whole northern beaches community”.
“While Brad is currently incredibly busy as the NSW Health Minister, he and I are both tremendously proud of the project team for achieving this major milestone on a very complex piece of infrastructure” he said.
The eastbound lanes of the underpass will be the first section to open, about midnight on March 28. The westbound lanes will open about two hours later — at 2am on Sunday.
On Saturday, April 4, the on-ramp from Wakehurst Parkway will open. Then, on April 18, the three right-turn lanes from Warringah Rd on to Forest Way will be reopened.
The opening of the underpass also means the reintroduction of the right turn from Wakehurst Parkway’s northbound traffic on to the eastbound lanes on Warringah Rd.
Transport authorities are reminding motorists travelling eastbound to Northern Beaches Hospital to use the surface road and turn left at Forest Way and follow the signs to the hospital.
There will still be some night work and weekend road closures to complete the work.
“The people of the northern beaches have a world-class hospital and will now have this fantastic piece of infrastructure that will improve their road journeys,” Mr O'Dea said.
For the latest traffic updates call 132 701, visit livetraffic.com or download the Live Traffic NSW app. To keep up to date with the project, visit the Northern Beaches Hospital road upgrade project page.