The Heathcote Road upgrade project is powering towards the finish line, with the new westbound Williams Creek Bridge at Holsworthy now open to traffic.
This completes the upgraded crossing of Williams Creek with twin bridges after the eastbound bridge opened late last year.
This is a significant milestone within the Heathcote Road upgrade around Holsworthy and Voyager Point.
It marks the last major milestone before the project is completed later in the year.
The new bridge is 32 meters long, supported by six 10-metres long reinforced concrete piles and is designed to withstand a 1 in 100-year flooding event.
The other major waterway crossing as part of the upgrade at Harris Creek is also progressing well.
The old bridge has now been removed, heritage abutments from the former military railway built by POWs have been preserved, and a new westbound bridge is continuing construction.
“With two water crossings, an overpass across the railway, the alleviation of a congestion point around MacArthur Avenue and new lights at Voyager Point, this has been quite a complex project,’’ says State MP for Liverpool Charishma Kaliyanda.
“It is a welcome improvement to the local road network that will make a daily difference to the lives of commuters in our growing community, giving them more time at home and less time on the road.”
The NSW and Australian Governments are upgrading 1.8 kilometres of Heathcote Road – an important South West Sydney regional road – as part of a $188 million investment for a road that carries around 36,000 vehicles per day.
The upgraded road will be widened to two-lane dual carriageway and feature new traffic lights at Voyager Point, an upgraded intersection at MacArthur Drive at Holsworthy to facilitate better access and an upgraded bridge crossing over the T8 railway line.
Through these latter stages of the upgrade, landscaping work will ramp up to improve the physical environment for motorists and users of the shared pathways.
Federal MP for Hughes David Moncrieff said the upgrade will significantly reduce congestion and improve safety and flood resilience.
“Our community has been calling out for this bottleneck to be addressed for a long time, and it is great to see such rapid progress,’’ he said.
“This has been a notorious road for congestion and this project will bring real change.”