Cahill Expressway

It is named after the then New South Wales Premier John Joseph Cahill, who also approved construction of the Sydney Opera House.

Route

The Cahill Expressway starts at the interchange with the Bradfield Highway and heads east as a four-lane road on the upper level of a two-level viaduct across the northern edge of the Sydney CBD at Circular Quay, before turning south at the interchange with the Sydney Harbour Tunnel and then southeast into the 371-metre (1,217 ft) Domain Tunnel, located underneath the Royal Botanic Garden. It emerges soon afterwards in a cutting, then enters another tunnel under The Domain, before ending at the interchange with Cowper Wharf Road and continuing south as the Eastern Distributor. Entry ramps for the northwestern end of the Cahill Expressway also exist heading southbound along parts of the Warringah Freeway in North Sydney and the Bradfield Highway across the Harbour Bridge.

At the western end of the Cahill Expressway traffic reaches the Bradfield Highway to travel north via a tunnel under the Bradfield Highway then an anti-clockwise spiral which climbs up to the level of the Bradield highway, traversing 270° in doing so.

The expressway forms a link between Sydney's eastern and northern suburbs, by connecting the Eastern Distributor to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel. It allows travel directly from Kingsford-Smith Airport to the northern suburbs without traffic signals. The traffic on the elevated section was reduced by half following the opening of the Sydney Harbour tunnel in 1992, but has increased again since then as the increased road capacity as a result of the construction of the tunnel has encouraged greater car usage.

The elevated section is on a double deck viaduct, with the top deck carrying the Cahill Expressway, and the lower deck the City Circle railway and Circular Quay railway station.

The expressway has a pedestrian walkway next to the traffic lanes, where great views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the CBD can be seen. It is accessible by stairs from Macquarie Street, or an elevator near Circular Quay railway station. The walkway connects with the Sydney Harbour Bridge walkway. The Roads & Traffic Authority offers tickets to view the New Year's Eve fireworks from the Cahill Expressway deck through a competition.

Former The Sydney Morning Herald writer Elizabeth Farrelly described the freeway as 'doggedly symmetrical, profoundly deadpan, severing the city from the water on a permanent basis'. The sunken section of the expressway runs between the Royal Botanical Gardens and The Domain, key green spaces in Sydney. The Botanic Gardens Trust described the expressway as destroying the spatial relationship between the two. However this ignores the fact that, notwithstanding the almost constant closure of parts of The Domain to public access because of various private entertainments, there is unfettered public access to it, whereas the Botanic Gardens by contrast are heavily fenced, so that without the expressway there would still be limited movement opportunities between the two.

Demolition of the elevated section of the expressway has been proposed, most prominently by former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, who in 1994 offered federal funds in the amount of A$150 million toward such a project. The then NSW Premier, John Fahey, rejected the proposal because of the cost and the resultant traffic problems. Keating's proposal failed to take into account the necessity of the expressway for traffic, and the fact that even with removal of the expressway, the City Circle railway and Circular Quay station would remain, and need to remain because of the key role they play in Sydney's public transport system.