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Photo Gallery
New South Wales Road Photo Gallery:
Metroad 4 and Westlink M7 (Lighthorse
Interchange)
The Lighthorse Interchange is located
at Eastern Creek and is connects the Western Motorway
(Metroad 4) to the Westlink M7 Motorway. It's Sydney's
first full freeway to freeway interchange and also
has connections to Wallgrove Road.
Information why the Lighthorse Interchange
is named what it is and also additional images and
information are located on the Westlink M7 official
web site.
Construction of the interchange commenced
in late 2004, and involved keeping both Wallgrove Road
(then a semi-major north-south route) and the Western
Motorway open to traffic, so various techniques were
used to build the interchange so that traffic was relatively
uninterrupted apart from a few side-tracks and reduced
speed limits.
The various ramps and bridges make
Australia’s
largest Interchange, using 18 bridges. The northbound
bridge is 431 metres long and the southbound bridge
is 397 metres long. Eight ramps connect the Westlink
M7 to the M4, all with electronic toll gantries.
802
bridge segments were used in the interchange, with
each segment weighing between 40 to 100 tonnes.
2 million cubic metres of earth was placed at the
interchange with 5,000 square metres of retaining walls
built.
The interchange
is 23 metres above the M4 at its highest point and
16 metres above the existing Wallgrove Road bridge.
The interchange along with the Westlink
M7 motorway opened fully to traffic mid-December 2005.
| Length: |
N/A |
| Route Numbers: |
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| Information courtesy
of the Westlink
M7 website and the Aussie Highways Mailing
List |
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