At-grade crossings on the Pacific

[#130km/hforthehume]

With 563 km* of the Pacific now motorway-standard, I was wondering if there are any plans to upgrade the remaining 200 or so km of the highway to a motorway-standard road. Or even if there are no plans to completely motorwayify the entire highway, are there any plans to grade separate the important junctions (such as The Lakes Way, Myall Way, Houston Mitchell Dr, Harrington/Coopernook Rds, Wooton Way, Bucketts Way) that are not grade-separated?

*Measured using Google Maps. There may be some inaccuracy here. Figure does not include CFS and the M1 Extension.

[Aevion]

The Coopernook junction is planned to be replaced sometime in the next few years; unfortunately I don't think there are any solid plans for the others. There's definitely a push for Myall Way, although this 'push' started in 2006 when the dual-carriageways went through there and created what we have now. 

As for motorway-standard, that's anyone's guess....

[Paul Rands]

I don't think there is too much focus. The promise was to deliver dual carriageways from Sydney to QLD Border. That has been delivered. There will, as always, be periodic reviews to sections of the route, and planning made for improvements, but I wouldn't expect to see too much change compared to what is there now. For the majority of the route, the traffic volumes, really don't warrant full freeway-grade road the entire length.

Whilst there is a focus to reduce congestion issues (eg, extra lanes between Sydney and Newcastle, Coffs Hbr bypass and Beresfield to Heatherbrae upgrades), you will probably only see anything further as small localised changes, such as grade separation for busier intersections, but I think most of the at-grade junctions will remain into the foreseeable future.

I think the focus now will shift towards improving on other routes and repairing flood damaged communities and reducing their risks into the future.

Paul Rands
li...@paulrands.com
http://www.expressway.online/

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[Nihat]

Houston Mitchell Dr has had improvements looking at street view. Those other intersections are one side of the highway unlike Coopernook which is more of a safety concern as its a 4 way and is next in line to be grade separated. 

On Sun, 20 Nov 2022 at 14:28, #130km/hforthehume <thenorthernt...@gmail.com> wrote:

With 563 km* of the Pacific now motorway-standard, I was wondering if there are any plans to upgrade the remaining 200 or so km of the highway to a motorway-standard road. Or even if there are no plans to completely motorwayify the entire highway, are there any plans to grade separate the important junctions (such as The Lakes Way, Myall Way, Houston Mitchell Dr, Harrington/Coopernook Rds, Wooton Way, Bucketts Way) that are not grade-separated?

*Measured using Google Maps. There may be some inaccuracy here. Figure does not include CFS and the M1 Extension.

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[#130km/hforthehume]

Interesting thoughts (and apologies for my influx of comments today). Glad to hear that the Coopernook junction will be replaced. 

I thought that proper motorways (or dual carriageways with no right-turns) or roads with European-style LILOs (e.g., https://goo.gl/maps/qAmr2L2o2p7V5ztN9, https://goo.gl/maps/RbSPG6kVB97PDLjt6 or https://goo.gl/maps/WEPahHPH5b6rQNUQ9) boost visitor numbers as opposed to a standard junction. Hypothetically, it's more likely that I would stop by a town with an interchange as opposed to a town where I'd have to turn right. In other words, the sheer number of vehicles from oncoming traffic is enough to throw some drivers off into not stopping by a town.  

As a side note, here's a lovely example of a motorway that isn't a motorway at a first glance: https://goo.gl/maps/iNzd2PPmegSF5G7o7.

[Paul Rands]

We have a few examples of LILO conditions in Australia (similar to your Jönköping example https://goo.gl/maps/qAmr2L2o2p7V5ztN9), such as Peats Ridge Rd with Wisemans Ferry Rd, but they're not widely used, I assume due to the costs involved.

Paul Rands
li...@paulrands.com
http://www.expressway.online/

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[Sam L]

Peats Ridge Road / Wisemans Ferry Road is just a normal diamond interchange on a two-lane motorway.

This is probably a better example - Hume Hwy/Tumbarumba Rd: https://goo.gl/maps/cHM9RLcRGhdGH7ETA

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Subject: Re: [Aussie Highways] At-grade crossings on the Pacific

 

[#130km/hforthehume]

That makes sense; here's another one on the Pacific Mwy itself, FWIW. Agree that these are probably not worth upgrading, for the reasons you've mentioned.

[AlienChex]

There’s confirmed plans to extend the M1 from Beresfield to past Raymond Terrace, bypassing the Hexham bridge and the lights that are preventing the seamless Sydney-Brisbane link, as well as the Coffs bypass. Once complete, it will be zero lights, two lanes each way between Melbourne and Brisbane, so that’s cool.

Apart from that, there’s not many plans to fix up any of the at-grade intersections. I assume it will be treated like Hume Highway, where dangerous intersections will be upgraded in due time

[Nihat]

There was a planning project to fix a short northbound section of 90 with some tight bends north of Failford Rd but that won't be happening anymore, they did end up doing another one around Herons Creek but i think that was completed before the Woolgoolga to Ballina so the focus was then on that. And now it will be those heavy traffic at grade intersections but that's well into the future. 

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[AlienChex]

As Pacific Hwy is a state road, they’re not going to allocate funds for small upgrades until Heathcote and Coffs are done. However, councils can do that if they want.

[Lachlan Sims]

It's a bit of an outdated design style and not really compatible with high speed roads (merging, acceleration, deceleration etc. - especially when stop signs on the entry ramp are involved).

One former location comes to mind - the Pacific Highway ramps on either side of the old Clarence River bridge at Harwood (1960s DMR design).  These have now been completely removed/upgraded/altered with the new bridge crossing and highway upgrade.  Even as it was, the northbound ramps on the southern side were substantially altered prior to the upgrade due to safety and operational functionality due to the mainline curve and poor sight distances.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/aussie-highways/f85f6ab2-222e-4c71-52b5-5d4fcac56aae%40paulrands.com.

[Nihat]

Here's the latest community update to the Harrington/Coopernook intersection

https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system/files/media/documents/2025/pacific-highway-harrington-road-intersection-upgrade-coopernook-project-update-september-2025.pdf

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[Sam L]

Looks pretty good to me. Mildly surprised that the local road intersections on either side are not roundabouts which seems to be the typical treatment for these types of intersections. Construction still >2 years away by the looks.

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Subject: Re: [Aussie Highways] At-grade crossings on the Pacific

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[AlienChex]

This is a very “welp, there ya go!” intersection. Keeping the original roads and turning them into LILO junctions, and then just linking them with a bridge. No roundabout, no proper exit lanes, no full motorway style junction like those on the late 2010s PacHwy duplication projects, but it’ll do. 

Buckets Way and Medowie Road next please, they are horrendous junctions.

[Nihat]

That's what it looks like. They mention the budget so clearly a roundabout and extended exit/merge lanes would go over the funding envelope. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/aussie-highways/0f986474-c3ea-438c-b4a9-cf753cee94e9n%40googlegroups.com.

[Michael Faria]

The Oxley Hwy interchange is to be upgraded by converting to two lanes and installing traffic lights. The northbound offramp has already been widened to two lanes recently and there are warning signs for queued traffic extending onto the Pacific. According to the report the eastern side of the Oxley actually carries more traffic than the Pacific - 30,000 per day as opposed to 25,000 (20,000 under the interchange itself)

https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/projects/current-projects/pacific-highway-oxley-highway-interchange-upgrade

[Michael Faria]

The local member was teasing a westbound overpass at the Maitland roundabout and some sort of interchange at Medowie Rd. Hopefully if Medowie Rd actually gets done they'll remove all of the at-grade intersections between Italia Rd and Bucketts Way. There's also a housing estate pencilled in for Kings Hill, just north of Raymond Terrace, which would involve an interchange at Six Mile Rd.

On Saturday, September 13, 2025 at 5:51:50 AM UTC+10 Nihat wrote:

[Aevion]

I've been wondering when they were going to finally get around to that westbound overpass at Maitland. Seemed really odd at the time to build only one.

I wonder with the Medowie Road one if there'd be potential to link Italia Road and Bucketts Way to it, probably utilising a lot of the former highway there as a new service road. Bit far-fetched I suppose, and perhaps there'd be plans to give Bucketts Way its own interchange at some point as well.

[Michael Faria]

Yeah the Maitland roundabout has always smelled a bit weird. The bull run of road projects in the lower Hunter doesn't appear to be stopping though.

At Medowie Rd I'd have them reconstruct and extend Nine Mile Creek Rd to run from south-facing ramps at Italia Rd to north-facing ramps at the Bucketts Way (including a connection to the cluster of properties opposite), with an overpass connecting to Medowie Rd. With some driveway and minor access road construction, the 13 km from Six Mile Rd to the Karuah bypass could be made limited access, only being marred by the pair of 85 km/h advised curves near Karuah. The dangerous-looking merge for trucks rejected by the south-bound inspection station re-entering the highway could do with fixing too. I would expect Medowie Rd to see a drop in traffic volumes when all of the works at Hexham are done because it will no longer be a time-competitive route into Newcastle from the north.

I'd love to see them commit to progressively increasing the length of the Pacific Hwy that's fully access controlled instead of piecemeal works here and there, but one can only dream.

Another matter which I think will become more and more pressing is the lack of acceleration lanes on older sections, particularly at rest areas, including Twelve Mile Creek southbound. When the highway is near capacity in holiday periods it's near-impossible to re-enter the highway, precisely when the rest areas are busiest.

[Aevion]

It's unfortunate that a lot of the Pacific Highway's design features are now pretty obsolete (there were a few intersections north of Karuah that looked particularly dicey). I think though that rather than link any of these disjointed service roads together they'll probably just turn them into left-in/left-out arrangements. I'd be very impressed if they actually elect to build a full service road to connect it all up.

I do like watching all of the construction activity in New South Wales. I guess there'd be a lot of locals who hate what's happening especially around Sydney, but for a rather bored roadgeek it's keeping me interested. Especially since it's like a tumbleweed blowing through down here.

[Michael Faria]

Yes, as a roads enthusiast I enjoy looking at plans and projects, even more so when I'm seeing them through the windscreen! I also like to think about what could have been done differently in the past and what could be done in the future. Sometimes I pull up SIX Maps and look at how a highway section could have its at-grade access removed.

On the Pacific Hwy there are sparsely populated sections such as Karuah to Taree as well as either side of Grafton where it just isn't justified to build the road as class M with complete grade separation and I think the later style of LILOs with U-turn bays, like at Halfway Creek is excellent and a big improvement on the older all-movements-permitted default style of intersection like north of Raymond Terrace. My understanding is that there was a policy of leaving the grade separations until later in order to maximise the rate of dual carriageway completion. I think that was a mistake because like all good temporary solutions there's a tendency for them to become permanent and also with regard to the stated primary purpose of the upgrades being safety, it was merely an improvement in one aspect at the expense of another. In the mid 2000s there seemed to be a move to the modern standard of motorway and increased grade separation. 

I think there should be a programme of progressively grade separating most of the highway. There's low hanging fruit in the form of simply turning unrestricted intersections into LILOs which could be done for example at the pair of intersections at the southern end of the Chinderah bypass and which has already been done at Tyagarah, and also removing LILOs which could be done at Boambee. Realistically I think it will remain a piecemeal process. I noticed that the Coffs Harbour bypass included in its scope a service road extending to the Lindsay's depot which is past the end of the project.

[Nihat]

You are right Michael that those initial plans with the funding available and traffic volumes then become permanent. Remember there was a project to straighten the alignment at Failford Rd which fell by the wayside. 

I certainly think the left in and out with a U turn bay is a much safer option than those seagull intersections which were provided during earlier designs. There was a recent fatality at Wootton Way with one of those intersections. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/aussie-highways/8e3cb045-ad68-46a5-ab41-413b3856a85en%40googlegroups.com.

[Sam L]

I think the decision to postpone grade-separations was more the reality of maximising the benefit from a finite supply of funding (or insufficient funding to build a new motorway from scratch) to deliver the highest safety benefits in the shortest period of time. The main reason for the Pacific Highway getting funding for duplication was two very serious head-on crashes (Clybucca and Cowper) so the understandable priority was a divided road with intersections, rather than a grade-separated motorway.

The reality is that if the RTA had pursued only motorway construction from the late 1990s onwards we would probably have 200+km of single carriageway highway right now, instead of a fully divided highway from Sydney to Brisbane. 

The other reality is that, despite some of the deficiencies now during holiday periods, the Pacific Highway is significantly safer than it was in the 1990s, despite doubling (tripling?) of traffic volumes. 

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Sent: Tuesday, 11 November 2025 2:36 PM
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Subject: Re: [Aussie Highways] At-grade crossings on the Pacific

[Michael Faria]

I agree, the upgrade programme has been of enormous benefit and the highway is so much better in many ways and that the deficiencies that have been built into it are mostly of marginal importance. I also have to agree that the omission of grade separation was a reasonable trade off to maximise the rate of duplication with the funding available. I'm thinking about how it could have been done differently because it's something I'm interested in and enjoy thinking about and what the matter of greatest importance is the fact that it was completed.

It appears that after the 1989 bus crashes, the intention to upgrade the entire length from Hexham to Tweed Heads to dual carriageway was a quite vaguely formed notion and at first there was a willingness to build the road at a lower standard to cut cost, but this willingness waned over time. The 1975 Waterfall-Bulli section of the Southern Freeway shows that NSW has long known how to build a rural freeway to modern standards. It wasn't just the omission of grade separation, there was also a conscious choice to compromise on the carriageway standard which included lower standard shoulder width, pavement construction, geometry, grade, et cetera. After the Coolongolook-Wang Wauk upgrade opening in 2001, only the 2010 Glenugie upgrade with its spray seal pavement was built at less than the modern carriageway standard. The lack of grade separation continued until the 2010 Coopernook-Herons Creek upgrade, which was the last to feature conventional all-movements-permitted intersections. all subsequent projects where either fully grade separated class M or in sparsely populated areas they were built as class A with U-turn bays and restricted right turns. 

Both the lowered carriageway standard and the omission of grade separation allowed more dual carriageway to be constructed with the funding available. I believe the former was a mistake; the marginal cost of improvement after initial construction is enormous so it's going to stay how it is. However I think the latter is a reasonable trade-off assuming that the marginal cost of dual carriageway construction in improving safety is less than that of full grade separation. Returning to the funding issue, there was money wasted on divided four lane upgrades which were either bypassed or reconstructed later on. These were Chinderah south, Bangalow, Cowper, Swan Creek and the Maria River. It's also interesting to note that only after the Raleigh deviation began construction, when the 1996 federal funding programme began, that it was made a dual carriageway project and was extended to include the Perrys Hill cutting.

[Sam L]

I'm not sure I agree on the money being wasted at these locations - most were built in the 1990s so provided ~20 years of safety and capacity return on investment. They were, at the time, considered to be a part of the staged upgrade of the highway and it wasn't really possible to predict that funding would become available for new off-line motorway construction in the 2010s. 

In the 1970s the DMR was investigating 'ultimate' alignments for many sections of Pacific Highway, including a coastal motorway alignment from Ballina to Tyagarah (the original Ballina Bypass reservation that appears in the 1990s UBDs was the southern continuation of this). Even before the significant reduction in funding in the 1980s, the DMR abandoned this route because they could not see that there would ever be funding available to construct a brand new motorway 50km in a single stage when the existing road was carrying only ~2,000vpd. Instead they focused on the staged upgrades generally along the existing alignment, e.g. the 1970s deviation at Newrybar and the 1990s Bangalow Bypass.

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From: aussie-...@googlegroups.com <aussie-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Michael Faria <michael....@gmail.com>

Sent: Wednesday, 12 November 2025 11:31 AM

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Subject: Re: [Aussie Highways] At-grade crossings on the Pacific

[Michael Faria]

So complete duplication was being considered before the 1989 bus crashes? I've noted that rural dual carriageways had already been completed at Chinderah south in 1978 and the Maria River in 1988. I've wondered why Ballina wasn't bypassed long ago like Port Macquarie was given the significantly shorter route that would result. The property boundaries show a lower-speed route from the Burns Point Ferry Rd roundabout to Gallans Rd. As a side note I had a look under the 1955 Maria River bridge, which has a concrete deck poured on timber bearers and the original timber was still in good condition! I'm impressed that it was carrying traffic until 2008.

My criticism of the wasted expenditure was on the basis that the some of the funding could have been better spent. While Swan Creek, Cowper and possibly Chinderah south needed upgrading at the time, a Brifen fence median with an overtaking lane would have satisfied the traffic need until 2020 as the Pacific Hwy and then indefinitely as the Big River Way and Tweed Valley Way respectively. Then at the southern portion of the Bangalow bypass and also the Maria River dual carriageways there was an asset with many years of use still left which was nonetheless reconstructed as it didn't suit the new design. My view is that the RTA ought to have decided the final route of as much of the highway as early as possible and then gradually filled it in as funding was available. As a side note, the DMR did a very good job of the concrete Swan Creek and Cowper dual carriageways and I also have a lot of affection for the 1930's narrow concrete pavement which is in great condition for its age, at Duncans Lane and Finlaysons Rd, in the Ozroads photo with all the paint testing.

I recall reading in the DMR's Main Roads journal in the 1950s that in the USA a much larger amount of revenue was extracted per road user which was essential for the very ambitious interstate highway system that was under construction at the time. I think the Bruce Hwy is where the Pacific was in the 1980s-90s, where there's increasing demand for upgrade. They've already done roughly 200 of the 1,700 km between Brisbane and Cairns.

[Aevion]

From what I've read, the 1989 crashes sparked an initial program to improve the highway, including a few stretches of dual carriageway such as Cowper and Allgomera Creek. While a few larger-scale upgrades were under investigation at the time (Bulahdelah-Coolongolook and Yelgun-Chinderah for example), I believe these were at the time considered well off into the future. A few of the projects completed during the 1996-2020 program were actually commenced during the earlier program, such as the Chinderah and Raymond Terrace bypasses. I think Raleigh may have been as well.

I believe all of these improvements were, at the time, planned to be part of a larger, full-scale upgrade of the highway. Obviously as time went on and design standards changed, so did the potential for these earlier works to be included in the overall upgrade. Of course, some of the earlier projects were purposely built as initial stages to be finalised later, such as Herons Creek and Possum Brush. I do recall the RTA including a lot of these earlier improvements in their later upgrade plans, at least at first, but of course these plans chopped and changed a lot over time. I definitely remember the plan for the Bangalow area being a duplication of the existing highway, even the St Helena stretch. Others on here would probably know more about it.

That being said, it could also come down to a lack of foresight. But then I don't think they intended the upgrades to stretch through until 2020 either.

The more recent at-grade arrangements would probably be a good solution for the time being, but they definitely need some interchanges in some spots. Could be a long time before that happens though if Coopernook is only just getting started now.

[Sam L]

So complete duplication was being considered before the 1989 bus crashes? I've noted that rural dual carriageways had already been completed at Chinderah south in 1978 and the Maria River in 1988.

Initially (say 1950s/60s) there was a recognition that eventually there would probably be a need to duplicate the highway and this informed activities to reserve and acquire land for widening of the road reserve to enable future duplication, as well as restrict direct property access where possible. There was generally limited/no design work involved - as you can imagine this would have been an impossible task for 900km of highway while producing designs for projects that are actually funded - just working to a typical cross-section or typical reserve width that makes reasonable allowance for four lanes, a median, and batters etc. Some specific sections started to get more attention for ultimate relocation, some of which had more design work done than others, depending on where development was occurring or likely to occur.

I've wondered why Ballina wasn't bypassed long ago like Port Macquarie was given the significantly shorter route that would result. The property boundaries show a lower-speed route from the Burns Point Ferry Rd roundabout to Gallans Rd.

Port Macquarie only got a 'bypass' because of the ferry replacement and the location selected for the bridge over Hastings River - it wasn't a bypass of the town per se. Maclean was similar, with the additional driver that the highway through Maclean was subject to flooding. Ballina had an internal bypass developed in the 80s via Kerr Street which relieved the worst of the traffic, and there was also an unofficial alternative route via Teven that light traffic used to bypass Ballina. So short answer is the traffic and safety issues weren't as serious in Ballina as it was in other places.

My view is that the RTA ought to have decided the final route of as much of the highway as early as possible and then gradually filled it in as funding was available.

The DMR did seek to do this generally speaking, however design standards change significantly over time. So a 'final' route determined in the 1950s or 1960s would not necessarily meet modern requirements for a divided highway in the 2020s. Bangalow is a great example as the dual carriageway bypass was intended to be the ultimate highway route as nobody seriously thought a tunnel under St Helena Hill was a realistic proposal until the standards changed to a motorway upgrade.

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Sent: Wednesday, 12 November 2025 2:53 PM

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Subject: Re: [Aussie Highways] At-grade crossings on the Pacific

[Michael Faria]

Thank you for that Sam.

It looks to me like the desired standard for the Pacific Hwy gradually rose until in the 2000s the full freeway standard which had existed and been applied elsewhere for a few decades was imposed. The earlier dual carriageway projects built last century are a mess of standards, shoulder widths vary from minimal to the full 2.5 m and anywhere in between. Interestingly the Lyons Rd-Englands Road EIS showed proper shoulders and an asphalt surface, but was actually constructed with no shoulder and a noisy concrete surface. The impression I get is that higher-ups interfered in various projects in order to cut costs.

 Is there any more information on the topic besides all of the MRB/DMR/RTA/RMS stuff that I downloaded from the OpenGov NSW website while it still worked, i.e. the annual reports, Main Roads journal and the many project reports? I've only read up to the early 1960s though.

As a seperate issue, am I correct to assume that the Tugun tunnel under the airport was built so that to add an extra lane the shoulder is to be sacrificed? The features on the Tugun upgrade that allow an easy upgrade from four to six lanes are readily apparent, but in the tunnel and approaches there's no spare space except the shoulder. Tugun wasn't included in the Gold Coast M1 six-laning programme which has recently been completed. The locals were whinging about the roadworks taking forever, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were simply progressing southward.

[Ethan “CainNKalos” Barrow]

Actually going through that tunnel, it's almost impossible for me to imagine a 3rd land being added each way at all. It doesn't seem to have the space at all. And personally, I don't think it needs to be extended to three lanes any further south...

[Michael Faria]

Yeah, that's what I thought, that it was squishy for three lanes. When sitting in the covid border control queue I could see the extra space on the headstocks on the bridge over Hidden Valley to fit more super Ts and they even put an set of end blocks ready to connect to the edge barrier. There's no plan to do it anytime soon but I think it will likely be done some time down the track when there's more traffic. The Banora Point and Chinderah upgrades are already six lanes from construction. The Tweed Heads bypass has room in the median for easy six-laning except the Terranora Creek bridge.

[Dean Sherry]

That Ballina to Tyagarah motorway sounds really cool.  Then we never would've had the waste of money that was the 90s Bangalow Bypass.  Can you show us where the alignment would've been?  I'm guessing it would've started at the southern end of the Tandys Ln upgrade and ended somewhere around Teven Rd or Pimlico Rd?

From Dean.

[Sam L]

The Bangalow - St Helena Upgrade plan from the late 90s

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From: Sam L <crazykn...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, 13 November 2025 1:32 PM
To: aussie-...@googlegroups.com <aussie-...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [Aussie Highways] At-grade crossings on the Pacific

[Dean Sherry]

Sam, thank you for the picture, but that's not actually what I'm looking for.  I already have a copy of the EIS for the Bangalow-St Helena project that I got off the old OpenGov website before it got shut down.  What I am after is something showing the alignment of the Ballina to Tyagarah motorway proposal from the DMR era that you mentioned.

From Dean.

[Michael Faria]

Interesting Sam, but I'm glad they didn't built it, there's only so much that could be done with that narrow, winding ridge line. It's hard to imagine the highway traffic doing the old dog leg through the middle of Bangalow back in the day. The view coming down that hill past the broken glass screen was beautiful though.

[Aevion]

Was that glass screen meant to appear 'broken' or was it damaged? Always wondered why it was like that as I don't remember how it looked when it was first put in.

[Michael Faria]

It was definitely broken, it looked like someone went along with a .22. I have vague memory of it being installed and then being broken shortly after. It's been removed now. 2007 GSV shows it being intact.

[Michael Faria]

In other Pacific Hwy news, five months of road works, including six weeks of contraflow have begun at Shark Creek. Embankment settling caused the approaches to the Shark Creek bridge and the unnamed bridge south of it to sink below bridge level and create a sharp bump and the speed limit was dropped to 80.

https://www.echo.net.au/2025/10/pacific-motorway-works-planned-south-of-maclean-from-monday/

The bascule opening span that originally served the 1933 Pacific Hwy bridge over the Tweed River and was then installed on the local road bridge at Broadwater has been removed and replaced with a fixed concrete span due to its poor condition. It wasn't mentioned what the fate of the bascule span was.

https://richmondvalley.nsw.gov.au/broadwater-bridge-reopens-after-major-upgrade/

[Nihat]

I may have driven it when it first opened and there were signs of uneven settling. The whole upgrade went pretty smoothly I think, this is one of the rare occasions where they have to remedy. Looking at street view they already lowered the limit to a permanent 80, good to know they are doing a hopefully permanent fix to 100/110

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[Michael Faria]

The issue of embankment settling next to bridges is common, but it's a lot easier to fix with an asphalt surface. I don't see why it would need five months though. There was a landslide at the Iluka interchange that was fixed in 2024 but seems to have occurred around 2021.

[Aevion]

Sad to see that little bit of history gone at Broadwater. Does this mean that there's now a height restriction for marine traffic going under the bridge now? Also thought it was odd they stated it had served for 25 years - didn't this bridge open in 2006?

[Michael Faria]

Ozroads says the Broadwater bridge opened Dec 2005. From what I could find the new highway bridge is 15 m, the 2011 maritime charts list the Broadwater bridge as 15 m open and 8.5 m closed, but the bascule is of limited value because the older Woodburn bridge is 8.5 m, which is the minimum bridge clearance standard, all the way up to Lismore. I didn't see anything to say if it was actually operable or not when it was removed. The new highway also got some baseless blame for exacerbating the extreme February 2022 flood.

I find it interesting the rather inconsistent bridge clearance over navigable estuaries, ranging from being no higher than the approaches to the big 30 m clearance of the new Harwood Bridge and anywhere in between. Part of the reason given for the demolition of the old bascule bridge at Coopernook was that it was lower than the desired clearance when closed. The 1930s Mororo Bridge was not known to have ever been opened except for testing.