Priority Status: High Priority

Project State: NSW

City: Western Sydney

Suburbs Affected: Parramatta to Lapstone

M4 Motorway Upgrade Project Plan

• M4 Motorway Upgrade Cost: $853 million
• Federal Funding: $60 million
• NSW State Government Funding: $540 million
• Project Type: Road - Motorway Widening
• Length of Job: 40km

M4 Motorway Upgrade Project Map

M4 Motorway Upgrade Construction Details

The project centres on leveraging the existing M4 motorway infrastructure and improving its usability and capacity. The project spans 35km between Lapstone at the foothills of the Blue Mountains and Mays Hill, near Parramatta. The upgrade will include:

• Intelligent Transport Systems including electronic signage and vehicle detection technology
• On and off-ramp improvements
• Freight bypass lanes at three locations, prioritising trucks and improving merging (eastbound at Roper Road, Colyton and westward at the Prospect highway and the M7)
• New power and communications capabilities along the M4 Already completed within the project scope in 2019 was an additional lane in each direction ("widening") along a 4.3km stretch between the M7 and Roper Road interchanges.

M4 Motorway Upgrade Contractor Information

Contract Awarded To: Seymour (stage 2 & 3 - end date 2020)

M4 Motorway Upgrade Jobs & Community Plan

Projected Jobs For M4 Motorway Upgrade: 10,000

Significant delays and congestion have long been an issue on the M4 Motorway, due to heavy peak hour usage exceeding the roads capacity. In the 2015 Australian Infrastructure Audit, modelling conducted highlighted that during both morning and afternoon peaks along the M4 had a volume to capacity ratio of 1.1 in 2011. The importance of the connection from the east-to-west cannot be understated with the Greater Western Sydney (GWS) catchment projected to grow at 44.5% between 2011 and 2031 (equating to an additional 490,000 people).

As it stands, GWS already represents 10% of Australia's total population. With neighbouring developments placing additional demands on the M4 (such as the Western Sydney Employment Area and Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek) the capacity issues will only worsen with time, without effective upgrades taking place.

M4 Motorway Upgrade Upgrade Timeline

M4 Motorway Upgrade - Construction: 2018

M4 Motorway Upgrade - Completion Date: 2020

M4 Motorway Upgrade - Timeframe: 1-5 years

Sources: https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/m4/index.html, https://infrastructurepipeline.org/project/m4-smart-motorway-project/