Cahill Expressway

The Cahill Expressway is an urban freeway in Sydney and was the first freeway constructed in Australia, opening to traffic in 1958.[1] It starts from the Eastern Distributor and Cross City Tunnel in Woolloomooloo, and runs through a series of sunken cuttings and tunnels between the Royal Botanic Garden and The Domain. One of the tunnels is the 371-metre (1,217 ft) Domain Tunnel, located underneath the Royal Botanic Garden.[2] The freeway then runs on an elevated section across the northern edge of the Sydney CBD at Circular Quay, and then across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to North Sydney. It connects there to the Warringah Freeway.

For the painting, see Cahill Expressway (Smart).

Cahill Expressway

New South Wales
General information
TypeExpressway
Length2.2 km (1.4 mi)
Opened1958
Route number(s)
Former
route number
  • National Route 1 (1992–1993)
  • Metroad 1 (1993–2013)
Major junctions
NW endBradfield Highway
The Rocks, Sydney
  Sydney Harbour Tunnel (M1)
SE end Eastern Distributor (M1)
Woolloomooloo, Sydney
Location(s)
Major suburbs / townsSydney
Highway system

It is named after the then New South Wales Premier John Joseph Cahill, who also approved construction of the Sydney Opera House.

History
The Cahill Expressway under construction in 1955

The expressway was first proposed in 1945 as part of an overall expressway plan for Sydney. Public opposition began when the proposal was first made public in 1948, with the Quay Planning Protest Committee being formed. Despite the opposition, construction on the elevated section of the expressway went ahead in 1955. Funding was provided by the Sydney Council and the NSW Government, and the elevated section was opened on 24 March 1958. Work on the sunken section commenced almost straight away after that, and the additional section was opened on 1 March 1962.[3]

As part of the Eastern Distributor works in the late 1990s, a landscaped canopy was built over the southern end of Cahill Expressway (where it meets the Eastern Distributor) near the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[4]

In June 2013, the Expressway was temporarily renamed the Tim Cahill Expressway in honour of Socceroo Tim Cahill, ahead of the Socceroos' 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Iraq.[5]

Since 2022, Ventia operates the Domain Tunnel on behalf of Transport for NSW.[6]

Role
The Cahill Expressway viewed from the Sydney Harbour Bridge

The expressway forms a link between Sydney's eastern and northern suburbs, by connecting the Eastern Distributor to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel. It allows travel directly from the airport to the northern suburbs without traffic signals. The traffic on the elevated section was reduced by half following the opening of the Sydney Harbour tunnel in 1992.

The elevated section is a double deck, with the top deck carrying cars, and the lower deck railway lines and Circular Quay railway station. The station provides easy access to the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Botanical Gardens. The westbound lanes dip underneath the Harbour Bridge approach road, before forming a large spiral circling Fort Street Public School to join to the Bridge in a confined space.

The expressway has a pedestrian walkway next to the traffic lanes, where great views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the CBD can be seen. It is accessible by stairs from Macquarie St, or an elevator near Circular Quay railway station. The walkway connects with the Sydney Harbour Bridge walkway. The Roads & Traffic Authority offers tickets to view the New Year's Eve fireworks from the Cahill Expressway deck through a competition.[7]

The Cahill Expressway viewed from the vicinity of Macquarie Street, Sydney

Former The Sydney Morning Herald writer Elizabeth Farrelly described the freeway as 'doggedly symmetrical, profoundly deadpan, severing the city from the water on a permanent basis'.[8] The sunken section of the expressway runs between the Royal Botanical Gardens and The Domain, key green spaces in Sydney. The Botanic Gardens Trust described the expressway as destroying the spatial relationship between the two.[9]

Demolition of the expressway has been proposed in the past, most prominently by former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, who in 1994 offered federal funds in the amount of A$150 million toward such a project.[10][11] The then NSW Premier, John Fahey, rejected the proposal because of the cost and the resultant traffic problems.[12][13]

Jeffrey Smart painting

One of Australian artist Jeffrey Smart's most famous works is Cahill Expressway (1962). The painting shows a stylised view of the Cahill Expressway tunnel and approach road, with a single man shown at the side of the image. The painting shows the alienation many feel when faced with the infrastructure of large freeways, especially when closely juxtaposed with pedestrian scale areas.[14]

Exits and interchanges
LGALocationkmmiDestinationsNotes
North SydneyNorth Sydney00.0 Warringah Freeway (M1)Northern expressway terminus (southbound lanes)
0.50.31Mount Street – no exitSouthbound entry only
0.60.37High Street – no exitSouthbound entry only
Sydney Harbour1.3–
2.5		0.81–
1.6		Sydney Harbour Bridge
SydneySydney2.61.6 Western Distributor (A4 south) / Bradfield Highway (north) – North Sydney, Newcastle, Sydney CBDNorthern expressway terminus (northbound lanes); incomplete interchange: northbound exit to Bradfield Highway and southbound exit to Western Distributor only
3.32.1Conservatorium Road – Sydney CBDNorthbound entry and southbound exit
3.52.2 Sydney Harbour Tunnel (M1) – Newcastle, BrisbaneNorthbound exit and southbound entry; M1 continues south along Cahill Expressway
3.5–
3.9		2.2–
2.4		Domain Tunnel
3.92.4Sir John Young Crescent – no exitNorthbound entry only
4.12.5Shakespeare Place – no exitSouthbound entry only
4.22.6Cowper Wharf Road – Sydney CBD, WoolloomoolooSouthbound exit only
4.42.7 Eastern Distributor (M1) – Wollongong, CanberraSouthern expressway terminus; continues south as Eastern Distributor
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

See also

References
  1. "1998 Special Article - The State of New South Wales - Timeline of History". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
  2. "Domain Tunnel". Star Group. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  3. "How to Build a Street". Sydney Streets. City of Sydney. Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
  4. "Proposed Eastern Distributor: Cahill Expressway to Mill Pond Road: volume 1: environmental impact assessment" (PDF). OpenGov NSW. Department of Urban Affairs and Planning. 2 June 1997. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  5. O'Brien, Thomas (17 June 2013). "The fast road to Brazil: Cahill's personal route to Rio". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  6. "Sydney Harbour Tunnel". Transport for NSW. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  7. "New Year's Eve in your city". Today. Channel Nine. Archived from the original on 31 December 2006. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
  8. Farrelly, Elizabeth (3 December 2002). "Opening up the Cahill Expressway won't be a dynamic change". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
  9. "History". Botanic Gardens Trust. NSW Department of Environment and Conservation. Archived from the original on 26 February 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
  10. "Cahill Expressway Demolition". Legislative Council Hansard (Extract). Parliament of New South Wales. 15 September 1994. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
  11. "Keating agrees to pay for removal of Cahill Expressway". The Canberra Times. Vol. 69, no. 21, 688. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 2 September 1994. p. 4. Retrieved 27 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. "Fahey rejects PM's offer to demolish city expressway". The Canberra Times. Vol. 70, no. 21, 701. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 15 September 1994. p. 5. Retrieved 27 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. "$50m beautification of Cahill, Quay defended". The Canberra Times. Vol. 70, no. 21, 737. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 22 October 1994. p. 6. Retrieved 27 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. Corkery, Noel. "Re:Engineering The Landscape" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2012.

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