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Western Sydney Airport will receive another significant transport link after state and federal governments pledged $1 billion to upgrade a two-lane road from Liverpool.
The refreshed Fifteenth Avenue will connect the new Bradfield city centre, Metro and the airport and allow public transport to operate along the route.
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While few specifics have been revealed, Liverpool Council previously urged for the road to become a “visionary city-shaping project” that would include next-generation buses that resemble light rail, as well as cycle lanes.
NSW Minister for Roads John Graham argued jobs and investment would have been squandered if Fifteenth Avenue remained a two-lane road from a “time gone by”.
“With this substantial investment in the road infrastructure of Western Sydney we are building a highway to economic opportunity,” Minister Graham said.
The investment will be split evenly between the federal and state governments and comes with 22,000 vehicles per day travelling along the road currently. However, that number is set to rapidly rise, with up to 63,000 additional people estimated to live around Fifteenth Avenue by 2041.
“This critical investment is a game changer for Western Sydney that will connect thousands of jobs at Western Sydney Airport and the Aerotropolis with Liverpool,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said.
“Without this critical road, we couldn’t deliver the growth and jobs the Aerotropolis has the potential to deliver.”
The new transport link is part of a host of upgrades, including the $2 billion M12 Motorway and a new $10.4 billion Sydney Metro line that will connect the aerotropolis with St. Mary’s and allow for onward connections into the Sydney CBD.
The state government has also committed to creating two “business cases” that will look at the feasibility of extending the Metro link to the city and removing the need to use traditional trains.
It comes after Australian Aviation reported in October how the first official take-off and landing took place at Western Sydney.
The Piper PA-30 Twin Engine Comanche aircraft, VH-8MN, was tasked with taking off and landing at both ends of the runway in daylight, dusk and nighttime conditions to ensure the airport’s 3,000 Aeronautical Ground Lights (AGLs) were fit for purpose ahead of the 2026 opening.
Construction began on the airport’s single initial runway in 2022 and is nearing practical completion. The runway is expected to be capable of catering for around 10 million passengers per year “from day one”.
The Comanche is technically not the first plane ever to land at Western Sydney Airport, as a Piper PA-28 Cherokee made an emergency landing on the construction site earthworks in late 2020 due to what was reported as a mechanical problem on a training flight.
