M2 Widening Project submissions close 21 June

Did you know that submissions on the M2 Widening Project close on 21 June?

The plan includes providing a third lane each way between Pennant Hills Road and Beecroft Road. This was achieved to the south of Beecroft Road by taking out the bike lane, but this doesn't seem to be an option for the road over Chilworth Reserve.

Someone not on the council tells me that the intention is to do this new widening by filling in the space between the two existing viaducts over the reserve. That sounds like major work! Yet the exhibitions now available don't explain this, and don't appear to give any estimate for the time this major construction work will take, or what times the work will be undertaken. Anyone who lives in the area will be dreading extended night construction work!

The wider carriage way is likely to be less well shielded by the sound barriers originally provided, so the traffic noise will presumably be significantly higher even if no more traffic is attracted to the road by the extra lanes.

But surely more significant is the extensive evidence from many independent studies that the whole plan is flawed. All it will do is suck more traffic from the North West down into this road, which is already saturated as it nears the city.

Two years ago the Beecroft-Cheltenham Civic Trust made a submission on this issue, including "The Trust would also oppose any widening of the existing carriageway because of the high impact on local amenity". One would have expected this to have been followed by a major campaign to inform everyone of the evolving state of the project, but I haven't heard anything. Did I miss it?

To learn more, go to http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/, and enter M2 Upgrade in the "search projects" box. Click M2 Motorway Upgrade, and at the bottom of the page is where you can record your submission.