M4-M8 Link Opening Day! Driving the complete WestConnex tunnels in both directions [4K]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- With all three stages of WestConnex (M4 East, M4-M8 Link, M8) now officially open as of today, join me on a drive of the now-complete tunnels in both directions! WestConnex has been described as Australia's biggest road infrastructure project since the Harbour Bridge, with 19km of twin tunnels revolutionising automotive travel in Sydney's Inner West.
Came for the drive, stayed for the trivia. This was an awesome video. If you don't get demonetised for the copyrighted music, I hope you earn enough to at least cover the tolls.
Thanks mate! This channel is just a hobby of mine, so unfortunately I don't earn anything 😅
the tolls on westconnex are actually much fairer compared to the flat cost of other motorways which is entirely unreasonable. a legacy of contracts done decades ago. hopefully something can be done soon, eastlink in melbourne is a good example of a tolling system.
The M8 and connection don’t seem to have too many exits.
These new expensive fancy roads are leaving me unimpressed! Prefer the government stop neglecting the roads from becoming a dangerous crumbling jungle with broken roadsigns, faulty street lamps, and no "cats eyes" or reflective paint.
M4 tollway at night during a rainstorm it is impossible to see the lanes! 😳
That's one beautiful tunnel system in Sydney, Australia, I must tell you, very bright and never dark.
Great music choice, 80’s memories of a very different Sydney.
Very happy to see the tunnels open and documented. I’m really impressed seeing a tunnel network like this, especially with its sheer length. The tolls are steep but I think it’ll absolutely benefit the city
tolls are steep is an understatement
… and when you need to use other motorways (such as the cross city tunnel or whatever), the tolls can be in excess of $20-$30 one way! Stupidly expensive.
@@cc8530tolls are steep. But that’s the true cost of these roads (I nearly said freeways).
He glad you have the choice. Most places force the brutal cost of freeways on everyone one way or another whether they wanted it or not.
I worked on the entire length from Sydney Olympic all the way to St Peters I'm glad you liked it :)
Thank you!
We appreciate your hard work!!!
Now that is one long tunnel. The lighting in the ceiling somehow reminds me of the whole Stargate Sequence in the 2001 film.
The scale and size of this underground freeway network is extraordinary!
With the opening of the M4-M8 link, at 19km, WestConnex is now the longest motorway-grade road tunnel in the world, and the second longest road tunnel in the world overall (behind Laerdal Tunnel in Norway)!
Amazing Mate, I was waiting for your video on this new tunnel route, would love to drive this 22km stretch of tunnel one day. This new WestConnect is really beautiful, what an Engineering masterpiece. Cheers!
Wow .. I didn’t realised the entire project is 22km underground!
M4 East - Homebush to Haberfield- 5.5km
M4-M8 - Haberfield to St Peters - 7.5km
M5 East - St Peters to Kingsgrove - 9km
Impressive.
Wouldn’t it be nice if no other cars or Police/Camera’s where on the road…you would have so much fun 😊😊
WOW!
I moved from Sydney to Perth in 2004 and I have only been back once [driving a hire car] in 2013 for an event I was attending. The roads were all changed in 2013 but nothing like this!!!
Thanks so much for taking the time in recording this clip. Your explanations and pop-ups with information sure make it understandable for first time drivers or expats like me to understand how to get around in Sydney in 2023. Thanks for taking to time. Maybe the RTA could use your clip to explain the new changes? DM.
Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated!
Fantastic! I suspect that traffic volumes on the M8 will increase once the Rozelle Interchange is complete; people may start to drive from the south and southwest to the city via the M8 and Anzac Bridge rather than via the M5 tunnels and M1 as they do now.
My thoughts exactly! Thanks for the comment.
I know when I go out of Sydney down the Hume Hwy I'll use the Rozelle Interchange rather than snake my way down for ages to get onto the M5... kinda looking forward to it ngl 😅
@@yeahno307 God I hate the bloody Hume.
I’ve been anticipating this video for a while. It’s great to see this section finally open, and early too! It may look quite underused at the moment, but I’m sure as future projects open such as:
- Rozelle Interchange
- Western Harbour Tunnel
- Beaches Link
- Sydney Gateway
- M6
…the tunnel will see increased volumes of traffic. Excellent video, I hope to drive in this tunnel sometime soon.
It is amazing. The work that went into this is mind blowing😊
Sydney should be now be considered the motorway tunnel capital of the world!
… if you’re wealthy enough to use them.
@@josephj6521 more like if you value your time and wellbeing enough to use them. You obviously place very cheap value on your own versions of those.
@@jonnies I save $20 round trip if I always avoid the toll but it costs me an extra 20 minutes both ways. If I were to use this daily, that $5,000 every year is better in my pocket rather than billion dollar corporations. That’s $50,000 in 10 years. I can buy a nice car every 10 years or put it into my retirement fund and retire with a higher standard of living as opposed to saving only 20 minutes a day.
@@josephj6521 thinking of the money only is low-level thought. Think bigger picture, all the savings put together:
Time
Fuel
Car wear & tear
Accident risk
Injury risk
Stress and mental health
Daily fatigue
@@josephj6521 also, you should calculate how much value you place on your time (your most precious resource).
If you have an issue with spending (by your own admission) $20 to save 40 minutes (and that is a very low estimate on a $10 toll), that means you value your time at less than $30 per hour. And if you factor in the savings you would make on fuel, vehicle expenses, and the intangibles I listed, it turns out you value your time at FAR less than $30 per hour. I would approximate that your time is worth somewhere around $10 per hour. That is not good, young man. Value your time higher.
EDIT: and if you ever had 1 passenger in your car and didn't take the tolls, the value you place on each of your times would halve to only $5 per hour - which would be utterly pathetic.
This is an excellent video with lots of useful information and iconic Aussie songs to listen too!
Great video.. better quality than another upload where I completely missed the suburb naming on the walls. It's not quite as good as the M8 where they also had the LED rope, but still decent.
It's amazing to think this is just the start for this piece of road
- Rozelle Interchange 2023
- Airport Gateway 2024
- M6 2026/2027
- Western Harbour Tunnel 2027/2028
Will completely change the use, add traffic, and make for a lot of merging.
Great video thanks for posting!!!!
Thanks to this video I'll know where to exit for the airport, so it's just after the Camperdown sign. Last time we passed by here to go to the airport we missed the exit and had to turn back in Riverwood.
The m4-M8 link needed a Camperdown exit ...the traffic from Haberfield exit to Broadway is shocking in peak traffic and vice versa for those wanting to get on the m4 tunnel. They could of skipped 20 set of traffic lights
The Camperdown option would have been good, I agree. It was in the early designed but was nixed largely because of the impact of the on/off ramps in a tightly congested, highly developed part of the inner city. Would have been very unpopular with the locals.
Instead they'll need to get on via the Anzac Bridge route or Rozelle.
finally!!!! cant wait to drive this myself
Awesome video, great music, appreciate you speed it up and explained the roads.
I’ve been through a tunnel in sydney before when going to collaroy and it was super dark and all you could see was like these white Stars on the sides of the tunnel, it was so pretty.
The last 2 songs on this vid are your best pieces of music put in to any video of yours ever. I've downloaded both songs, and especially That's Freedom by John Farnham its my favourite classic song. I am born in 2001, way after these two songs were hits but I enjoy them a lot. So thanks for that 👍🤗 and a great drive this is too. Looking forward to more vids from ya 🙏😁
Thanks mate for the kind words, appreciate it!
That’s a big win for Sydney. I lived in Sydney 2002 to 2005. Traffic was horrendous back then.
And with the addition of all these expensive toll roads it even worse!
Great video and awesome foresight to build this amazing infrastructure for Sydney. We needed it so badly. Now just need to finish the Rozelle Interchange, make the M6 motorway & the Northern Beaches motorway happen.
Thanks for saving me 4 coffees! Also those strips of light are really interesting.
Great video. Imagine the traffic volumes if the tolls weren't so high!
On the flip side, without the tolls we wouldn't have the tunnels.
Alastair,Do you remember back in 2001, when the M5 East first opened toll free,it was all bumper to bumper for the next 20 years!
I remember being excited when they opened the Parramatta to Prospect missing link!! 🤣😂
Good news, great footage. Thanks mate!
Great video. Put together very well.
After a while I had no idea where I was as far as above ground.
Look forwarding to navigating it some time
Great video showing west connex
Thanks for this mate been wanting to see what it looks 👍
fantastic video I love it
Love the music.
Was curious about what this tunnel would look like since I drove past it when it was closed not long ago. Am glad youtube algo brought this vid up! Always looking for nice drives around sydney so just subbed!
Thanks.
Wow! you uploaded three weeks early! very nice vid as always keep it up mate!
Love the video mate
Ironic how the lights flashing past your camera are virtually in sync with the beats from “great southern land” 👍
I drive from Holroyd to Hurstville which took 45-60 minutes via either Woodville/Henry Lawson/M5 or Parramatta Rd/Olympic/Rookwood/Stacy/M5 around 34 kilometers through countless stop start traffic lights and traffic. Got on at James Ruse Drive from Parramatta Road to Beverly Hills at King Georges Road to try the M8. Took 35 kilometers to get home but only 25-30 minutes due to not stopping once and driving on cruise control at a constant 80 km/h instead of crawling along in stop start slow traffic. My fuel economy has dropped from 29 litres /100km to 9.6 litres /100km and this using a Holden VF Commodore V8 running on E85! If I changed back to Unleaded 98 this would increase even more as it uses around 30% less fuel. Sure, the toll costs $11 each way instead of using the Southwest M5 Motorway CashBack at $5.96 but I reckon it will be worth it when the NSW Government gives back 40% Cashback when using the M8 when you reach I think $373 of tolls just with the fuel savings and no wear and tear on the car like tyres, engine wear and brake pads. Also less risk of crashing with Road Ragers and cars getting damaged by Sydney afternoon Hail Storms. The only risk is falling asleep if your tired as you don't need to really concentrate on anything apart from keeping your car in the lane. Hehe
Great comment - finally someone who appreciates the savings you get in the big picture.
I live in the Hills district and the quickest way to the airport via road is the M2, Lane Cove Tunnel and Harbour Tunnel there and back. It costs $38.58 return
If I head down James Ruse Drive and then use M4-M8 extension it should only cost me $22.22 return. I'll definitely go the M4-M8 as it is $16.36 cheaper
Great to new road systems lived here in the 60s what changes🏴🏴
I must admit it was a very well presented video….unfortunately I won’t be experiencing any of these tunnels…as I will be moving to Perth with “NO TOLLS” and amazing road system….good to see Sydney’s moving forward with better roads. 😊
Taking the Westconnex Tunnel from one part of the A3 to another part of the A3… then doing a U-ie to take the same tunnel back to the first part of the A3. What’s not to like about this video?
It would be interesting to see which way is faster, given the A3 is at non-peak conditions
Thanks for the comments!
Just taking the A3 would be faster and much more direct, I only drove the route in this video to showcase the entirety of the WestConnex tunnels, I wouldn't commute this way 😅
Went through the tunnel yesterday from Gardeners road to the blue Mtns. It was a good journey. I wish there was a tunnel from Mascot to Anzac Parade. Traffic on Gardeners road is getting worst every year.
Great to see Sydney getting its roads made properly to modern standards, this will free local roads from traffic congestion, now if you all drive electric cars you stop having a transport problem,congratulations Sydney, now get your new airport working!😀✌️❤️🇬🇧
I live in granville. Kind bummed that M5 via henry Lawson is still faster that M4 to M8 when going to the airport.
It’s finally done!
Going to have to renew my license & checkout the new roads in Sydney. Used to live in Lane Cove so knew those tunnels & motorway to airport & Hume well. Have plenty of toll credit. Haven’t been down there for 6 years. I’m at top end of C coast & used to be there regularly. M1is normal up here. Done M4, M7, M2 but this has thrown me a bit with Geography so need to reacquaint myself with Sydney’s road network
Awesome mate, new sub to the channel.
Great graphics being used. Haven’t done the drive yet on the link but have the M8 a few times and I can’t help but notice how wet and dirty the road and concrete always looks like there is a leak in the tunnel
Thanks mate, yep the M8 has had issues with groundwater seepage since it first opened in 2020 as it passes under natural paleochannels.
Ok I finally used the M4 / M8 from Homebush Bay Drive, Homebush to Gardeners Road, Mascot. It took approximately 11 minutes. Pretty impressive
The best motorway between Homebush and Beverly Hills would be an actual motorway lies somewhere between Homebush Bay Dr/King Georges Rd and Olympic Dr/Fairfield Rd, going North South. That would be amazing and really reduce both travelling time and distance
7:33
Talk about perfect tempo matching.....
I swear those lights and the music , its a rhythm game...... ."Tunnel Band" or "Beat Tunnel" ;)
Thanks for the drive thru! It is always a bit stessful when you drive through ne roads - often the signs are not pointing to where you are going and assume you know the area! (thus the 80km speed limit! as many people are one time users - sometimes from outerstate). Videos of this quality should be available online from the RMS and the toll road companies so people can plan trips. thanks again.
Thanks mate! I had never driven the M4-M8 Link before filming this video (since it was opening day), just had to follow the signs and hope for the best 😂
Good on ya, heading airport from Parra, think exit at Ashfield and cut through Marrickville way. Exit for tunnel too far from terminal and $$
Thanks mate! Just be wary that traffic through Marrickville can get extremely congested, so the tunnel may or may not be worth it depending on when your flight is.
That's pretty gnarly infrastructure. It's amazing to see such an impressive network of highway tunnels.
It only took a few decades of waiting!
Here comes a toll levy from the transport Co. And no doubt Woollies & Coles will pass that onto us.
Wow. I have to move to Sydney. I'd never have to get out of my car. I could drive around 24/7.
Thanks for the trip...I guess once all the other links are attached it will make more sense...a shame we have to take out small loans everytime we want to utilise the tunnel system the WestConnex will be once fully completed...and as I drive a truck throughout this fine city...it's a shame the Government can't provide more incentive to get the bilk of the traffic off the surface and underground...but just allow the BOOM system to line the pockets of the investors...once the daily traffic number start to pick up. Alas the woes of Sydney's traffic snarls will continue so long as the private consortiums run the tunnel and motorway networks.
Great vid by the way...and the information provided throughout was top notch...keep up the great work 🙂🙂🙂🙂
Cheers from outer Western Sydney!!!!
Thanks mate, much appreciated!
They need to amend the flashing amber signs at 0:20 and 1:04 that say "Parra /Wattle Use Left Lanes" to just "Parra /Wattle Use Left Lane" - singular. You can see the car at 1:35 having to make a last-second dash, from what was the middle lane at the start of the tunnel, into the left lane to exit at Parramatta Rd . He probably thought, as I did, that you could exit at Parra Rd from the middle lane, not realising that a new left lane suddenly appears just before the exit.
Doh I missed the turn of to Parramatta Rd and ended up at the airport the other day. Now I'm watching this to see what I did wrong. Go internet!😬😬
I think Sydney is the capital of tunnels in the world with too many tunnels: M5 , EB, cross city, Harbour tunnel, lane cove, northconnex, Sydney Metro harbour tunnel, M4, M8, m4m8 link, then new west harbour tunnel.
Really awesome infrastructure, pity the tolls are so expensive that motorists can't utilise it fully.
Icehouse - Great Southern Land is an appropriate song to have blaring through that tunnel.
Future projects that will link to Westconnex -
Rozelle Interchange - late 2023
Sydney Gateway to airport and M6 stage 1 - both 2025
Western Harbour Tunnel - 2028
Is the route to the international airport sign posted after taking the airport exit
How long does it take from homebush to Beverly hills? I'm guess the video was sped up.
From memory, around 20 minutes or so.
The Sydney gateway needs to include a link to the foreshore road for all the trucks going to the ports, then encourage trucks to use Westconnex. This would take all that traffic out of the M5, and the M5 will then be primarily for eastern suburbs traffic.
Otherwise, yep, a multi-billion dollar road to nowhere.
Although once the western harbour tunnel and rozelle interchange open that should boost traffic
Ive seen a document of the south eastern transport plan 2056 and that link is future extension of the gateway
found here: www.sgsep.com.au/assets/main/SES_Transport_Strategy_low-res.pdf
Last night I nearly got the bingo! I went M1, Pennant Hills Road, M2, M7 and M5, Pacific Highway and then M1 home lol. The most I’ve done in one night is Newcastle-Banksmeadow, Banksmeadow-Mt Thorley, Mt Thorley-Tomago, Tomago-Marulan, Marulan-Newcastle. That was an epic one.
Speed limit should be at least 100km/h; ideally 110 or 120km/h (70/75mph). 80km/h (50mph) seems too low since its not busy. And sorry if my metric skills are bad I normally use imperial (mph in UK). One time I would use cruise control at 78km/h
Imagine these were toll free then Parramatta rd would be almost empty, a sight to see.
There's a gnarly bend when you enter from Wattle St. Posted limit 80 but the strange camber and changing angle of turns makes that a terrifying prospect.
If you wanted to go from beverly hills to homebush or vice versa it would be quicker to just drive down King Georges road and cheaper. Although the M8 is much better than using the M5 east tunnel.
So if your heading to the airport from say the Concord Road entry do you exit at the Gardeners Road exit at Mascot? Sorry slightly confused 🫤
Yes, that would be the correct exit to use.
I am curious to know what your trip time and total cost was from Homebush > Beverly hills and Beverly Hills back to Homebush. Cheers
I like so much
someone send a link of this to Google so they can update their maps... 8 days after upload, not recognised as a route...
The video is obviously accelerated (by how much?). Would be really cool if you could actually drive that fast in the tunnel
Thanks, its sped up by 2.8x for part 1 and 3x for part 2.
0:39 ramp provision?
I believe that's just a breakdown bay, not a ramp.
@great aussie drives. Hello, can you tell me where is the Ashfield (Parramatta Rd) exit? There’s a sign at the start of the video it says 8km to get to Ashfield. Today I was driving from Granville and was going home to Marrickville I got lost at the new m4-m8 link. I panicked as I keep on driving eventually I was at the m5 east link. My car racked up 30+ kms. My phone says “Take the exit on the right towards Great Western Highway/Parramatta Rd. I don’t see a right exit anywhere. I only see a left exit at 1:35 mark do I exit from there? Or keep staying on the m4? Please help! I am afraid to go back. I don’t want to take the dreaded Parramatta rd home.
once you enter the tunnel coming from homebush , its the first exit and you continue towards the right of that exit
Thanks for the comment, the Ashfield exit is at 1:35
@@GreatAussieDrives Thank you so much! I panicked like crazy!
When you take into account all the savings:
Time
Fuel
Car wear & tear
Accident risk
Injury risk
Stress and mental health
Daily fatigue
...the tolls are WELL worth it. And if you have two or more people in the car, it becomes an absolute no-brainer.
Not to mention the benefit you taking the toll roads has on reducing congestion on the regular roads.
I agree! Especially when the alternate route is driving through the Inner West 😬
@@GreatAussieDrives It's insane how stressful and dangerous it is taking those backroads through Canterbury and the inner west. Good riddance!! Love your work.
Do that three time's a week,
At what cost.....
Should be free, all of the roads
Really should have been an exit at Camperdown
I may be a month late, but I must say Australia is definitely ahead of the US in terms of building out effective, useful roads; And that is coming from an American.
IDK why but i love and hate the toll systerm in australia. ITs funn going in the tunnles but sucks when you have to pay the expensive bills.
It is sad with the signage. People airport bound find themselves in the wrong lane and will do a deadly quick lane change ,because people do what people do when in a panic . Coloured line strips and coloured designated signage would that be so hard to implement .
always quick to it mate, fantastic. had a bit of a hiatus but I must find some time to drive this endless passage of concrete and wall panels + more!
I find it interesting they didn't even think of putting in any installations to deter loss of concentration from the monotony of the full 20~km length of the tunnels, apart from the rather lacking RGB wall panels in the initial M8 section of the tunnel 😅
Thanks mate! Yeah in terms of light installations NorthConnex does it much better lol
Ain't seen nothin' yet. The underground Rozelle interchange, which is the biggest spaghetti of road connections in Australia, the Sydney Gateway to the Airport, Western Harbour tunnel under Sydney harbour which bypassed the city for a second link to western Sydney, the M6 underground motorway, the Metro projects with their driverless trains, with a frequency of a train every 4 minutes, which can be reduced to 2 minutes, just amazing! There's nothing comparable in other states. Melbourne's West Gate tunnel, another big project, is a complete stuff-up, delayed and way over budget (what else can you expect from Chairman Dan?)
But most of their motorways are free or tolled at a lower price. Whereas in Sydney you barely find any motorways free
@@gaosong2101 You always have a choice. If the time and fuel cost saving make sense then use the motorway otherwise use an alternate route. Motorway builders do a lot of analysis to determine the cost of building the motorway, the toll that motorists would be willing to pay and future traffic volumes on the motorway and the alternate routes, to determine if it is a profitable investment. Otherwise, the motorway would not be built.
@@runner432000 that’s why I avoid ALL motorways in Sydney. Not worth it.
@@runner432000 At last, someone who gets it 💯
look forward to sydney gateway opening, that will be the last game changer connection to this network allowing the M8 to be fully utilized. at the moment compared to the M5, it is still very light on traffic.
Agreed.. this tunnel is kind of useless at the moment.
Rozelle Interchange
Airport Gateway
Western Harbour Tunnel
M6
Will all add substantial traffic
… a M6 all the way to Sutherland is needed! Going south of Sydney is too time consuming!
@@josephj6521 If the current government has its way (which I hope it will), the M6 will eventually go as far south as Loftus.
@@jonnies I hope so and now, not in future. Long overdue.
Speed limit needs to be changed to 100 km/h the lanes are just so wide. I cannot understand this conservative speed limit. M5 East fair enough an older tunnel where the lanes are so narrow.
80 is completely ridiculous for the new stuff.
Completely agree!
It’s 90 km/h now
@@kylieknight2270 Has it actually been implemented? Last time I heard the Libs made some comments about looking into raising it if they win the election, but made no commitments
Can you do the M4 to port botany one?
That's the same tunnel as this one, except you would exit at the St Peters interchange.
The drive was
Good but the music was better 😂
who knows where the cameras are
Where’s the cycle track,
for the M4 east opening video can someone give me the link as i cant seem to find the vid
Here you go mate
th-cam.com/video/je-ozuVUXoM/w-d-xo.html
if you don’t mind me asking, what car do you use for these videos
@@EPCGZ_YT-mw9xp This video was filmed with a 2013 Nissan X-Trail
A small price of $26.35 in tolls
Currently $22.22 as of right now, not cheap!
Looks like Clem jones tunnel
It actually does look a fair bit like the Clem Jones and Airport Link M7 lol
@@GreatAussieDrives true
One breakdown of any reason and this becomes
Sydney`s new expensive car park. It will happen a lot and so many poor excuses will flourish .
So if I wanted to go to st Peter's or Newtown, I would have to get off the Gardners /Euston rd road exit? Because the map on the westconnex website says there are two separate exits....one Euston Rd exit and one Gardeners rd exist? Gardners rd exit seems way off getting to Newtown
The Gardeners Road / Euston Road offramp branches off the main tunnel together. The ramp then splits further into two exits, one for Gardeners Road, one for Euston Road.
@@GreatAussieDrives thanks for clearing that up
How much is the toll???
$11.11 one way, so $22.22 in this video.
@@GreatAussieDrives thanks
@@GreatAussieDrives as always the case, $11.11 now - $50.11 in 2 years time.
They need to remove the crossover merges at the end of the tunnel
A lot more merges coming in the Rozelle Interchange
@@mark123655 still, the entirety of the both freeways’ traffic is merging as well as the M5’s exiting traffic going across