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Gymea resident Dave Spears photographs son Thomas and daughter Skylah in the M4-M8 Link tunnels on Sunday.Credit:Edwina Pickles

The $3.2 billion tunnels,each 7.5 kilometres in length,complete what has long been dubbed a“missing link” in Sydney’s motorway network.

However,another missing link,a motorway from WestConnex’s interchange at St Peters to Sydney Airport,is two years from opening. It means residents in Sydney’s inner south face more traffic on local roads as motorists navigate their way between the WestConnex junction and the airport until what is known as theSydney Gatewayis completed in late 2024.

The City of Sydney,which opposed WestConnex,has warned that motorists travelling to the airport via the new toll road will be funnelled from St Peters on to Gardeners Road in Mascot until the Gateway opens. “This risks having more significant impacts,” the council said.

About 2000 people got the chance to walk through a section of the M4-M8 Link tunnels on Sunday,Credit:Edwina Pickles

Transport for NSW chief operations officer Howard Collins said the local roads would be busier,but authorities were working to ensure that congestion was minimised when the new M4-M8 opens to motorists.

“Allow a little extra time as you’re travelling through some of those streets,” he said. “It is so important to make sure you know the route you’re taking.”

Transurban group executive Andrew Head said new motorways could put a “little bit of pressure on the local network” immediately after they opened,although it was difficult to predict motorist behaviour. “[The M4-M8 Link] is not a panacea until the Gateway is open,” he said.

The operator of WestConnex,which is owned by a consortium led by toll road company Transurban,estimates the motorway tunnels will reduce journey times between Parramatta and Mascot by up to 40 minutes.

Head said other Sydney road projects to be completed over the coming years such as theWestern Harbour Tunnel meant that WestConnex would be an “ongoing,incremental putting of the pieces of the puzzle together” for Sydney’s motorway network.

“We’re still going to do this ongoing open-heart bypass surgery on the motorway network whilst the patient is awake. Our task is to try and get this infrastructure built and minimise disruption,” he said.

Inner West councillor Pauline Lockie,who has been critical of WestConnex,said the government needed to fund traffic-calming measures in suburbs around the St Peters interchange to limit the disruption from vehicles being funnelled from the tunnels onto local roads.

“It is generating more traffic,and the[WestConnex] tunnels themselves will not be enough to take traffic off surface roads,” she said.

The first stage of WestConnex,awidened section of the M4 between Parramatta and Homebush,opened in 2017,followed by theM4 East tunnels which extend on to Haberfield in 2019,and theM8 in 2020. The latter is a duplication of the M5 between Kingsgrove and St Peters.

Traffic from the M4-M8 Link is set to make streets like Gardeners Road in Mascot busier until a road connection between St Peters and the airport is completed in two years.Credit:Kate Geraghty

Some motoristsstopped in lanes or reversed at entrances to the M4 East tunnels in the weeks after they opened in 2019 to avoid copping tolls.

Authorities want to avoid a repeat of drivers mistakenly driving onto the toll road when the M4-M8 Link opens,especially where two lanes on Wattle Street in Haberfield enter the new tunnels. They are urging motorists to familiarise themselves with their journeys.

Head said the message to motorists who drove into a tunnel they did not plan to enter was to “just keep going”. “We’ve seen people back up – that is not a good idea,” he said.

Distance-based tolls across the 33-kilometre WestConnex network are capped at $10.47 per journey for cars and motorcycles,and $31.40 for trucks. However,they willrise by 6 per cent on January 1,when annual escalation rates for the motorway network kick in.

The final part of WestConnex – acomplex underground junction at Rozelle – is due to be completed late next year.

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