page_title: M4 Motorway (Sydney)
section_title: M4 Western Motorway
hierarchical_section_title: M4 Motorway (Sydney) / Sections / M4 Western Motorway
caption_attribution_description: English: M4 Tunnel entrance, Sydney, Australia
context_page_description: The M4 Motorway is a 50.2-kilometre-long dual carriageway partially tolled motorway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is designated with the M4 route. The M4 designation is part of the wider A4 and M4 route designation, the M4 runs parallel/below ground to the Great Western Highway and Parramatta Road.
  The M4 route number comprises two connected parts:
  The original section completed between 1971 and 1993 is titled M4 Western Motorway, formerly known as F4 Western Freeway. It spans between Concord in the east, to Glenbrook in west, where it continues as the Great Western Highway as the A32. The section between Church Street in Parramatta to Concord was widened as the first stage of WestConnex, and is tolled as part of WestConnex.
  An eastern 5.5-kilometre tunnel extension of the M4 from Homebush to Haberfield, known as the M4 East or New M4 Tunnels, was completed as the second stage of WestConnex and opened to traffic on 13 July 2019. This section is also tolled as part of WestConnex.
  Approximately 36 kilometres of the motorway-grade road is not tolled, being that section of the road between Merrylands and Glenbrook.
context_section_description: The M4 Western Motorway was originally constructed in several stages as the F4 Western Freeway between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s. On the basis of a pre-election promise made by the NSW Premier Neville Wran in 1976, all land reserved for the expressway between Pyrmont and the (then) eastern termination point at Strathfield was sold off to property developers or declassified as a freeway corridor in 1977 by the State Government. The F4 Western Freeway from Strathfield to Auburn was opened on 16 December 1982 by Premier Wran. However a lack of funding resulted in the Wran Labor government halting plans to construct the final stage between Mays Hill and Prospect in 1985. In December 1989 work to construct this stage began as a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer project. In return for funding construction StateWide Roads, the consortium awarded to build the stage, was given permission to toll the section between James Ruse Drive and Silverwater Road as traffic volumes on this section were significantly higher than between Mays Hill-Prospect and would allow a shorter toll period with lower tolls. The consortium would also widen the section between James Ruse Drive and the newly constructed Homebush Bay Drive to six lanes. The Mays Hill to Prospect section opened in May 1992 and an initial of a $1.50 toll was implemented. The concession held by StateWide Roads ended on 15 February 2010, with operation of the motorway returned to the Roads and Traffic Authority and the toll removed.
  The Motorway is mostly three or four lanes wide in either direction, and carries constant heavy traffic during daylight hours, seven days a week. Built as a four-lane motorway, it was widened to six lanes during 1998 to 2000, but this did little to ease the congestion.
  Originally planned in the mid-1950s to start in the Sydney central business district, the eastern section was built only as far west as Pyrmont, as part of the North West Expressway, or F3, a freeway that would connect the Sydney and Newcastle central business districts. This section is now part of the Western Distributor. From there it was to have joined with the Western Expressway, the F4, and the Southern Expressway, the F6, in Glebe. At the western end of the Western Freeway as it was known in the late 1960s was to be routed through the Mitchell's Pass area through to Blaxland, however due to protests and the fact that the historic Lennox Bridge was very close to the intended pathway, it was decided to terminate the road at Russell Street, Emu Plains until a solution could be later found. This would have bypassed the Lapstone Hill area and avoided the sharp bends as the road enters Glenbrook. In December 1989 the extension of the freeway from Russell Street, west to the Great Western Highway in the vicinity of Governors Drive would bypass the narrow and winding section of the Great Western Highway, including the historic Knapsack Bridge. In June 1993, the new section of freeway between Emu Plains and Lapstone was opened to traffic.
  In 2013, the state government announced the intention to implement a 'Managed Motorway' scheme on the M4 over the coming years to improve traffic flow. Mechanisms to be used include improved Variable Message Signs, Ramp metering signals, dynamic speed and incident management, and an upgrade of the Emergency Telephone System.
  The M4 Western Motorway used to be part of the Sydney Metroad 4 until 2013, when the new M4 route designation was proclaimed along the whole motorway.
  The section between Church Strreet in Parramatta and the eastern end at Concord was widened as part of stage 1 of WestConnex works. Construction commenced in March 2015. In November 2015, it was announced that toll points would be reinstated on this section from 2017 to cover costs of the WestConnex project (upgrading and M4 East). The toll was introduced on 15 August 2017.
caption: M4 Tunnel entrance at North Strathfield looking east
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