Western Harbour Tunnel breaks through

Two major projects have come together as the Western Harbour Tunnel project’s 95t road header broke through to the Warringah Freeway Upgrade.  

Working on the Western Harbour Tunnel Stage 2, road header machines have so far cut through approximately one million tonnes of rock. 

The breakthrough marks a major milestone in the two state significant infrastructure projects. 

Since mid-2021, the Warringah Freeway Upgrade has been working to create the space on one of Australia’s busiest roads for the Western Harbour Tunnel to connect to the surface.  

The 6.5km Western Harbour Tunnel is due to open to traffic in 2028 and will remain in public ownership. 

This is the first new road harbour crossing in almost 30 years. 

Once complete, Western Harbour Tunnel will ease congestion for drivers who use the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Harbour Tunnel, Anzac Bridge and Western Distributor. 

The Western Harbour Tunnel will connect the Warringah Freeway to the WestConnex M4 and M8 at Rozelle Interchange helping drivers bypass the CBD and making it easier, faster and safer to get around Sydney. 

As the Warringah Freeway Upgrade progresses with building new bridges, ramps and underpasses, and a dedicated bus lane to the CBD, two giant tunnel boring machines will be delivered later in 2025 to the Western Harbour Tunnel and be assembled deep below Birchgrove. 

They will excavate twin, three-lane tunnels beneath Sydney Harbour connecting tunnels at Birchgrove with those at Waverton. 

The Western Harbour Tunnel and Warringah Freeway Upgrade projects are expected to support around 7,500 full-time equivalent jobs during construction. 

Work on the Warringah Freeway Upgrade is now more than 70 per cent complete with project completion expected in late 2026. 

Once completed, the Western Harbour Tunnel is expected to: 

• Reduce travel times from Sydney Olympic Park to North Sydney and Leichhardt to North Sydney by up to 20 minutes, and from North Sydney to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport by up to 15 minutes  
• Reduce traffic on the Western Distributor by 35 per cent, on the Sydney Harbour Tunnel by 20 per cent, and on the Sydney Harbour Bridge by 17 per cent 

In addition, the Warringah Freeway Upgrade will:  

• Implement over 120,200 significant traffic switches on one of Australia’s busiest roads during construction 
• Improve four east-west cyclist and pedestrian transport connections via bridges over the Freeway between Neutral Bay and North Sydney/Cammeray 
• Simplify and streamline lanes for motorists, making it safer and easier to access the CBD 
• Create a dedicated bus lane, removing merges and improving reliability for bus journeys across the Sydney Harbour Bridge 

New South Wales Premier, Chris Minns, said, “For the first time, there is light at this end of Western Harbour Tunnel – literally.  

“The breakthrough represents a significant moment for these two complex major projects and is the first time the twin mainline tunnels of the Western Harbour Tunnel have joined with Warringah Freeway,” Mr Minns said

“The Warringah Freeway Upgrade and Western Harbour Tunnel will transform the way people move across our city. 

“They will carry tens of thousands of vehicles per day, helping to improve journey times and reliability for people using Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel.” 

New South Wales Minister for Roads, Jenny Aitchison, said that the Warringah Freeway is one of the busiest and most complex road networks in Australia, and that the upgrade has been likened to doing open heart surgery while trying to run a marathon.  

“It requires new lanes, bridges, overpasses and ramps to be built in and around live traffic while also minimising impacts,” Ms Aitchison said.  

“Both the Warringah Freeway Upgrade and Western Harbour Tunnel are highly significant, strategic projects that will improve Sydney’s integrated transport infrastructure, benefit bus passengers and support the movement of people well into the future. 

“We’d like to thank drivers and the local community for their patience while we have been carrying out this work. 

“The delivery of this tunnel portal right in the middle of one of Australia’s busiest roads is an incredible achievement and we applaud the hard work of everyone working on these projects.”