An interesting story about Mahers Road and the construction of the M2

[Richard Ho]

Here is an interesting chapter about how the residents of Mahers Road, Beecroft coped with the imminent construction of the M2, which obliterated the road and the houses along it, not far from where I live in Carlingford. I remember seeing Mahers Road on street directories up until 1995. Read from pages 179 to 195.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=p_k4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=mahers+road+carlingford&source=bl&ots=XhTxyZehSc&sig=LXZWfsbQqmG4YzJwAbbSLXzgZB0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XmCjVcirJ6eomgX2toqQCQ&ved=0CEcQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Albert Alcoceba]

There is currently a Maher Close which more like a laneway.  I assume this is the remains of Mahers Road?

On 13 Jul 2015, at 8:43 pm, Richard Ho <richa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is an interesting chapter about how the residents of Mahers Road, Beecroft coped with the imminent construction of the M2, which obliterated the road and the houses along it, not far from where I live in Carlingford. I remember seeing Mahers Road on street directories up until 1995. Read from pages 179 to 195.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=p_k4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=mahers+road+carlingford&source=bl&ots=XhTxyZehSc&sig=LXZWfsbQqmG4YzJwAbbSLXzgZB0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XmCjVcirJ6eomgX2toqQCQ&ved=0CEcQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

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[davis]

That's a amazing articulation of the defeated NIMBY state of mind.

[Richard Ho]

On Tuesday, 14 July 2015 17:07:01 UTC+10, Albert Alcoceba wrote:

There is currently a Maher Close which more like a laneway.  I assume this is the remains of Mahers Road?

Actually Maher Close is a former alignment of Pennant Hills Road, which used to make a tighter S bend and climb up a hill, before being realigned into a cutting and widened as part of the construction of the M2.

Here is some street view which shows the faded double centrelines. The left northbound lane was removed and the road narrowed to three lanes (it used to be four-lane undivided)

[Lachlan Sims]

The road that’s now Maher Close is the former alignment of Pennant Hills Road which was realigned to the west to accommodate the M2 interchange. There was once a row of houses along the western side of PH Rd that were obliterated by the M2 works.

 

Mahers Road extended in both directions east and west of PH Rd (past Oakes Road to the west and over to the bushland reserve on the east).  I lived in Epping in 1994 and remember walking part of the length of the M2 route in the weeks before construction commenced.  Mahers Road still existed at the time but most of the houses had been vacated, some had been or were partially demolished.  It was as the article states – they simply smashed the houses down as they were, saving or recycling nothing.  Some sites were completely cleared, others had slabs or foundations remaining.  In the section of bushland between Beecroft and Epping were pristine creeks, sandstone outcrops, waterfalls, towering blue gums – it was very idyllic.

 

Down at the Epping end, east of the tunnel there were also houses on the northern side of Somerset Street – prior to demolition there were a couple that were deliberately burnt as part of fire brigade training exercises.

 

 

 

Lachlan