NorthConnex delivers immediate benefits to Pennant Hills Road

The long anticipated NorthConnex tunnel connecting the M1 Pacific Motorway to the Hills M2 Motorway in Sydney opened last Saturday morning. The tunnel bypasses Pennant Hills Road, providing a faster journey between the M1 and M2 motorways, while relieving traffic congestion on Pennant Hills Road.

To understand the immediate impact of the tunnel opening, we looked at traffic speeds on Pennant Hills Road on Monday and compared it to speeds on the preceding two Mondays.

Source: HoustonKemp analysis of speed probe data provided by HERE Technologies

What we found were significant improvement in traffic speeds on Pennant Hills Road, particularly for southbound traffic. On average, southbound traffic speed between 6am and 8pm on Monday improved by 7.5 km/h, while northbound traffic speeds improved by 3.7 km/h.

During the 8am peak hour traffic speed, southbound speeds were approximately 14 km/h faster on Monday following the NorthConnex tunnel being open. Northbound speeds at 8am were approximately 8 km/h faster.

These improvements are significant, representing improved travel times of more than five minutes along the Southbound length of Pennant Hills Road that has been bypassed.

It will be interesting to closely monitor how traffic speed patterns change on this heavily congested route into the future, as road users make use of NorthConnex. It will also be interesting to understand how NorthConnex contributes to addressing traffic congestion in other parts of the Sydney road network.The long anticipated NorthConnex tunnel connecting the M1 Pacific Motorway to the Hills M2 Motorway in Sydney opened last Saturday morning. The tunnel bypasses Pennant Hills Road, providing a faster journey between the M1 and M2 motorways, while relieving traffic congestion on Pennant Hills Road.