The new control centre at St Peters for the WestConnex road networks.Credit:Brook Mitchell
About 2000 Sydneysiders will get the chance on Sunday to walk through sections of the 7.5-kilometre-long M4-M8 Link tunnels beneath the inner west as part of a community day. The tunnels are up to four lanes in each direction.
WestConnex chief executive Andrew Head said the new facility was a major step-change from decades ago when motorways in Sydney were typically built with their own control rooms a fraction of the size of the new one at St Peters.
“The screens were analog rather than digital,and much more grainy. The support systems around it to manage traffic and incidents weren’t anywhere near as sophisticated as it is today,” he said.
Head said the big difference was that controllers today would be keeping watch from a single point over four motorways,which would effectively grow to five once a massiveunderground junction for WestConnex at Rozellewas completed late next year.
Premier Dominic Perrottet,left,and Metropolitan Roads Minister Natalie Ward visit the WestConnex M4-M8 Link tunnel in April.Credit:Brook Mitchell
“What WestConnex has always planned to do is when it gets to this stage was to bring[the control centres] all together,put them in one place and operate it as a network. That allows us to utilise the best technology available to respond to incidents wherever they may be.”