Mount Ousley Road: Australia's FAKE Motorway
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- Mount Ousley Road might just about be the worst motorway in Australia...if you can even call it one. Tight curves, dangerous at-grade intersections, and perhaps the most confusing interchange in the country...this road has everything. It's extremely difficult to drive as a truck driver, and many tragedies have sadly taken place on it over the decades. Follow me as we uncover the complex and coloured history behind Mount Ousley Road, and learn why exactly this motorway still exists today.
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Links:
My Bulli Tops Interchange diagram: drive.google.c...
Ozroads page on Mount Ousley Road: www.ozroads.co...
Ozroads page on Bulli Tops Interchange: www.ozroads.co...
Mount Ousley Descent video for truck drivers: • The Mt Ousley Descent
Mount Ousley Interchange Page: www.transport....
State Route 153: www.ozroads.co...
Music:
Synthwave 1985 by CineMedia
All That by Bensound
Meridian by CineMedia
Workout by Ikoliks
Synthwave Cinematic by AlexUnderTheSky
Energetic 80s Synthwave by CineMedia
VHS Dreams by Shane Ivers
I can't believe Mt Ousley Rd has been lying to us this whole time. I trusted it when it said it was a motorway. Pure betrayal 😭
Mate, you need to travel on the sunshine motorway up on the Sunshine Coast in Qld. Despite it being called a motorway, sections of it are not even dual carriageway and it even has roundabout junctions on the actual motorway.
@@electro_sykesRight!!! And that’s before we even talk about ALL the dodgy classifications of Victoria. They even used full “limited access” status at the same time as renaming them, eg “Hume Freeway”.
Ironically when you get into Melbourne, they go too hard in the other direction with all the multi-lane madness, giving the place a Los Angeles vibe. They wrongly assume that using more than 2 or 3 lanes (not even any parallel corridors) makes the road work better and easier to travel.
Queensland’s Gold Coast motorway suffers from some of that too. It’s the most unpleasant motorway in Australia, and I’m not even sure why. But as soon as you cross the border into NSW, the curves and layout are much better. Something very subtle about motorway engineering - you notice it in California if you compare the state freeways with the federal “interstate” freeways.
@@whophd "smith st motorway"
@@jsonattard2179 TIL, damnnnnn
But you know, having been to San Francisco a number of times, it reminds me of the tiny I-380. I guess Sydney's M12 will feel like this, but I always trust Sydney to do it better. (Even the 1990s ones like Gore Hill and ED make up for narrow lanes with really good greenways and landscaping).
it was a motor way. building beautifully needs to do proper research instead of shooting his mouth off
Human from Perth here. Mad respect to Sharath for the amount of effort and energy he puts into his videos.
Human from Sydney here, mad respect to you for learning about the other side of the country! (Haha dated a girl from Perth, was quite shocked by her “culture shock”) 😅😅
obviously not much on this one
I used to live close to the bottom interchange. Still remember dad driving us home, turning right, across the southbound lanes - which has been closed-off for ages now.
However you missed one important detail: the entire steep section is sliding down the mountain. The roads department has been treading water on this for decades.
Back in the 80's, travelling north you could turn right into Mount Pleasant
I'm sorry, but did you say the road is sliding down the mountain?
Yep, I remember that. My old Cortina stalled halfway across the down lanes with two old Heggies coal trucks thundering down. Thankfully pulled up and both drivers helped me push the old girl into the carpark. I actually ran out of fuel, didn't admit that of course.
@@Cullerin112 Yes. The entire escarpment is highly unstable. RMS spends huge amounts of money to keep Mount Ousley Pass open.
The actual proposed M1 true freeway route, that now has been partially de-gazetted, was to take the Northern Distributor to Bulli, then a mostly new alignment up to Bulli Tops, which can still be seen on the zoning maps.
See here: eplanningdlprod.blob.core.windows.net/pdfmaps/8450_COM_LZN_023_020_20230110.pdf It is the SP2 Road, that disappears as it hits the U bend on Bulli Pass...
Yep, plus the Russell Vale mine cuts under Mount Ousley "Motorway", contributing to subsidence and surface cracking.
There is a reason the Appin Road/Mt Ousley merge came into being. It might be wrid and confusing, but it is far, far safer than the old merge it replaced in the late 1980s. The Port Kembla steelworks in those days were fed entirely by coal from the Nattai/Appin/Buragorang mines which was transported by a steady stream of heavily overloaded and often dubiously roadworthy coal semis, sometimes driven by drivers who used chemical assistance to work their long shifts. Corruption was widespread in NSW in those days and everyone knew the truck firm (still a well known one BTW) was - err- "politically influential". They came down Appin Road and turned right onto Mt Ousley Road. The intersection there followed by the steep down grade after it was the blackest of black spots - an awful lot of cars coming from Sydney got crushed by coal trucks.
Well stated remembering the "strangehold" certain trucking companies had at the time. There were very few hard working privateers then. Additionally, coal from Mt. Kembla (Dendrobium) and O'Briens Drift system was also railed down via the still used line that crosses the Princes Hwy near O'Briens Road, Unanderra.
To fully understand the roadways in the area one has to understand the background of the road transporting and even the days of the collier shipping.
I heard fox was the reason the dombartan rail link was stopped because he wanted his trucks taking the coal instead of the trains
@juddy953 it was NSW Premier Nick Greiner that cancelled the Dombarton rail link, and then when he resigned under investigation by ICAC, went and worked for Transgrid building freeways, and then Infrastructure NSW which recommended the Westconnex freeway. It's rotten.
@flamingfrancis there is a song by Robin Connaughton of the Roaring Forties about the trucking down Mount Ousley ruclips.net/video/PPS0-EipzSk/видео.htmlsi=HE5ml6wbYkXwAmPe
Whenever I travel south on this road,I have memories of the old
Golden Fleece restaurant and petrol station which is now occupied
by the Southern Gateway Centre.
Still remember that too. Occasionally stopped there on day trips from Green Valley down Appin Road to Thirroul or Corrimal beaches in the "60s.
Southern Gateway Centre, one of Wollongong Council's greatest achievements...
yes and the old service(GOLDEN FLEECE) station goes back before Mt Ousley was build when you only had the princes hwy, appin road and bulli pass, there was no other road, if you wanted use it when first build Mt Ousley was a real goat track, worse than Bulli Pass
Here's a tip, if you want to investigate the current most dangerous road in Sydney take a look at the crash statistics related to the M1 between Wahroonga & the Hawkesbury. It's major crash rate frequency is getting ridiculous. A string of drivers also entering the motorway going in the wrong direction, usually happening in the early hours of the morning. Drug use and high speed tailgating are some of the causes of incidents. The crashes are so frequent now the NSW government is building a new Ambulance / Rescue station at Berowra. Once your done no need to leave the money of the fridge but maybe we can catch up and get a coffee.
That animated graphic was excellent. I’ve driven this road a number of times to/from Wollongong and have never been able to understand it. Well done! Thanks for the video.
Absolutely fantastic video Sharath!! One that I've been looking forward to for a long time (as you would know ), definitely super interesting learning about the strange history of a motorway - ahem, "motorway" - I drive so often!
4:35 - This is probably the most boneheaded design choice in the whole interchange, they could easily redraw the road markings so that both lanes continue onto the M1, and the Appin Road exit is a slip lane (like what is done heading southbound). Instead the right lane can only be used to access Appin Road, and way too often you have traffic cutting across in order to stay on the M1.
5:52 - Wow SUPER interesting photo, nice find! I didn't know that Mt Ousley didn't even have a central Jersey barrier back then.
12:17 - The Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009 zoning map does indeed show the reservation/alignment the motorway was originally planned to take. It seems like it would've employed the use of two tunnels to help navigate the steepness of the escarpment, with the northern tunnel portals being located at the wide gap in the current carriageways you mentioned at Appin Road. There are gaps in the alignment which suggest they would have been for tunnels.
It’s not as fake as the sunshine motorway in Qld. I still can’t get my head around how that’s a motorway yet is a single carriageway and has roundabouts
Do you at all have a link or similar to the 2009 zoning maps?
@@5fifty I have it but RUclips doesn't allow links in comments unfortunately. If you search for the Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009 on the NSW legislation website and find the zoning maps, the reservation is on map tile 023.
@@electro_sykes Because it has no driveway access points
@@GreatAussieDrives Thanks, It does look as if there was something planed.
Mt Ousley Road also obliterates pedestrian (i.e., hiker; also mountain bike) access along the top of the escarpment (parts of it really are quite lovely up there, away from the roads) at Clive Bissel Drive.
Good to see the channel returning to its roots - trashing the F6! And this is probably the biggest highlight the mysterious F8 has ever had on RUclips.
The F8 would be a joke if you ask me.
@@russellhorsefield9199 True, I spent years believing I had seen the sign wrongly or it had graffiti joining a "6" into an "8"
I still remember my dad playing "Brake Fail Bingo" driving trucks going down Bulli Pass and Mt. Ousley in the '60s & '70s.
In the 1980s, I used to commute from Shellharbour to the Sydney Institute of Technology four times a week, via Mount Ousley Road, on a motorbike. I did this for four years. I found Mount Ousley Road less stressful than negotiating Sydney city traffic, especially on a bike. I'd come home well after dark, deer along the F6 were the scariest.
Now do the Oak Flats interchange.
Nice video Sharath, a couple of things that you may find interesting... There have been multiple instances of trucks with failed brakes not taking the emergency stopping lane and continuing down Mt Ousley Rd and hitting the McDonalds at the end, these always make the news and can be found with a search engine. Also, the Picton Rd intersection bridge originally had both lanes travelling in the same direction heading towards Wollongong leaving vehicles wanting to turn right from Mt Ousley Rd onto Picton Rd still having to turn right across the Northbound traffic on the level, this was changed (I think in the late '90s) when they put the extra curve from Mt Ousley Southbound to loop onto the bridge and head to Picton Rd and this is why there are the large seemingly superfluous white arrows across this bridge indicating that it is a two way road.
You may also be interested in researching O'Brien's Drift which is an underground coal conveyor from the top to the bottom of the escarpment where trucks could dump their coal at the top and not need to drive down and then back up Mt Ousley Rd at all. It is unfortunately disused now, but the dump buildings are still on both sides of the road at the intersection of Harry Graham Dr and Firetrail 15c with the conveyor emerging near a still in use large coal stockpile accessed from Stones Rd Mount Kembla Village.
The seemingly useless right turn from Appin Rd onto the M1 towards Sydney is there for people leaving Panorama House or Sublime Point and heading to Sydney, basically allowing them to perform a U-turn.
As someone who travels up and down this road several times a week I'm completely used to it and never thought of how dangerous it is until you pointed it out just now 😂 My daughter is on her L's and is an expert in jumping onto the "motorway" from New Mt Pleasant Road, then merging into the right lane of cars doing 80kph to avoid the slow trucks. Great training ground !! 😂
Thank you for pronouncing it as "Princes" (like the plural of Prince) and not "Princess" highway. No idea when or why this misconception is so huge.
PRINCES (no apostrophe) Hwy here and PRINCESS Hwy in Melbourne (where else!!)
@@flamingfrancis Oops sorry that was a typo
It's not the plural of Prince, it's the possessive of Prince but with the apostrophe dropped due to our naming conventions (possessive apostrophes in road names are omitted). It comes from "Prince's Highway" and is named after King Edward VIII when he was still Prince of Wales.
@@crowie5415 That makes more sense, that it is named like it belongs to/ is named for the Prince. Thanks for clearing that up
The Princes Highway was named after Edward the Prince of Wales who became king Edward VIII.
The right turn to head north on Ousley is a horror show. I’ll often turn left and loop over the uni overpass, entering the freeway from the left and adding no more than two minutes to a trip (according to Waze). It can be congested in the am, though.
I'll often do this too, it may take a minute or so longer, but it feels quicker than sitting there yelling at the guy in front of you that "tHeRE wAs pLEnTy oF TimE jUsT noW yOu FoOL GO GO GO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR AAAAAGH"
so much safer to do that.
Thank you for your video highlighting the dangers of using Mt Ousley Road. As a retired professional driver running from Wollongong to Sydney 6 days a week for many years I am well aware of the risks. Many are caused by cars when descending Mt Ousley as they refuse to read the well marked decending lane signs. The cars should stay in the right lane and keep out of the truck and bus inner lanes, - they don’t ! Also, many drivers have no idea on how to use their gear box to slow their vehicles down and rely heavily on their brakes. But, here is the real problem ! Mt Ousley Rd is not feeding Wollongong , it’s feeding the entire South Coast of NSW . We now have daily commuters driving from South Nowra to Sydney and back daily. The Mt Ousley Road is just too busy. The answer is to build the new Pass from the Bellambi Creek area, ( the Big Dipper) and straight across and come down behind Mt Kembla (Dombarton) into the Albion Park area.with exits on and off ramps at Wongawilli and Avondale. A part 2 video would be interesting if you walked the fire trail that exists there
Great video. Grew up in Wollongong and while now in London, love Wollongong and you hooked me at the start of your channel a few years ago. I have an interest in the restaurant at the top of Bulli Pass where you covered the ridiculous intersection, and you've made a great summary of the situation. Try getting up and back to the Southern Gateway centre from Bulli, still find it confusing whenever I go back home. Have to start driving to Appin and then the old highway northbound. You could have also highlighted the on ramp to the F6 from Bulli pass. People have to enter the F6 (sorry, old name) in the right hand lane of a road with a 110km/h speed limit. Its only in the last 15 years or so its 3 lanes there, was two from inception.
Sadly all of Wollongong's roads are an economic compromise. If it wasn't for the trucks taking coal from the mines to Port Kembla, most of it would never have been started as the residents in the safest Labor seats in the country were never a priority. I remember my father showing me in the early 1970s the corridor reserved for Memorial Drive and what you term the F8. Growing up in Woonona, it was a bit of a divisive corridor even then as vacant land. Sad to use Memorial Road now as its a motorway standard road with low speed limits and the worst unsynchronised lights in the world. Should be very easy to synchronise them between Bulli and North Wollongong. Yet traffic moves in clumps between every set of lights. Cities like London and New York can synchronise thousands of lights. Positively for everyone in Wollongong now, imagine it with no F6 from Bulli Tops to Waterfall, no Memorial Drive, no Southern Freeway past Figtree (where TIGS school is), yet with even more coal trucks than today (many mines have closed over the decades). That was what is was like in the 70s, and perversely why some roads like those around the steelworks were even six and eight lanes then. The tragic fatality you mentioned was sadly one of many. Bulli pass at the same time saw vehicles go into houses with similar outcomes that make me shudder even now.
Re the F8, it was common knowledge in places like Woonona and Bulli in the early 70s the plan was to bring a motorway standard road down Bulli Pass from the top to the first elbow hairpin (where the safety ramp is), then take it straight through the safety ramp to exactly where Memorial Drive meets the Prince's Highway at Bulli today, next to Hospital Road and Molloy Street. That land was vacant for this even in the 60s and 70s.
Love your work, let me know if ever in London.
Yep, to see the penalty for being the safest electorates in the country for many decades, just look at Wollongong.
@@mssm9495 Yes. While I am grateful electrification of the Illawarra rail line changed my life as I could commute from Woonona to Sydney for uni and then work, the fact electrification got to Lithgow and Newcastle, more than double the distances, first, is a sad reflection. It also bred complacency in the politicians of the time who were in Illawarra seats. Above average representation in prison terms and soiled resignations. Had lots of free time as never had to worry about re-election as the voter base was blue collar universally until the mines and steelworks downsized and folks moved from Sydney post electrification of the rail line.
@@mssm9495 We don't call it sucktown for nothing, any chance someone can reveal the train movements debacle, Syd/ Woll.
6:05 Bellambi Creek Bypass; I was born & raised in Wollongong and I recall often hearing on the news of coal truck fatalities at Bellambi Creek. The original road was a long downhill and a hard turn at the bottom, too fast and miss the turn and the truck ended in... Bellambi Creek.
I grew up in Southern Sydney and had friends and relatives in the Illawarra. Every trip starred with a 15 minute debate on Mt Ousley v Bulli Pass v Coast Road.
As an Illawarra local, I can say that while Mt Ousley Road looks pretty bad, It isn’t really too difficult do drive up or down, so much so that its harder to do in an Auto than a manual. I can imagine that for someone who doesn’t know the area too well, it would be pretty confusing, but overall, not as bad as it seems. It was bad enough though for the DMR to not include it in the F6 Southern Freeway alignment, but they were just stick to standards.
The issue really is when the 3 lanes become 2 downhill as all trucks will be in the left lane doing 40. The quick merging across is dangerous.
@@Roadrunnerz45 I Agree, that road should not have the M1 Designation and that the 3 to 2 lanes is dangerous, but not as bad as he stated in the video.
Its easy with Auto.
Just ride the brakes all the way down.
While not the best of things to do, riding the brakes on a car which has ventilated disc brakes and is not towing is going to get the brakes hot, but not too hot to the point of fade or failure.
@@IIGrayfoxII oh yeah. That's what most would do. I don't think many would bother in a lower gear even in auto
@@Roadrunnerz45 I shift down to 4th or 3rd.
with 4th, i use the brakes here and there, in 3rd i dont have to use brakes and have to apply throttle at times.
Driving up Mt Ousley in a car is almost as dangerous as descending it, slow trucks use the far left lane, and slightly faster trucks coming up behind the slower trucks will often veer out into the middle lane at the last minute. I always find it safer to drive up in the far right lane, doing the speed limit, especially around left hand bends, when the faster trucks will suddenly appear in the middle lane.
That's why people hate you.
Not to mention those smaller trucks that identify as cars and use the right-most lane despite not being able to travel 80 km/h speed limit up the mountain
Agree 10000%, had this happen a few times
Problem is no one wants to do the speed limit going up Mt Ousley. It's so frustrating that 80kmh is so justified as the speed limit for a chaotic road like this but still no one follows it. Feels like a battle royale driving up in rush hour.
Thanks for this one Sharath. I don't often drive to Wollongong but have done so many times in the past in heavy rain and fog, and this road is a nightmare! The descent is utterly treacherous for trucks, and God help the driver who moves into the right lane to pass the conga line of them. You become an instant victim of the predatory road beast known as the Ford Ranger!
Great video of a pass I travel often. Can you do a video on the roundabout (2 actually) from hell at Oak Flats where New lake Entrance Road , Princes hwy, Princes Motorway and East West Link all crowd. It is actually two roundabouts in quick succession, but during peaks the traffic queues across both, often blocking the smaller roudabout. They put traffic lights on the major roundabout, almost an acknowledgment of the poor planning that could have been solved with a couple of flyovers.
I agree .. Mt Ousley is a toddler compared with the Oak Flats dogs breakfast
Spot-on.
The Oak Flats interchange is a shocker. The engineers who designed it, need to have their licences revoked.
Thanks for another great vid, Shareth.
Your animation takes it to another level.
Also, as half of my high school gang got accepted into Wollongong Uni back in the early '90's; Mt Ousley, as well as Appin Way, et al, was a bit of an inglourious racetrack of ours, travelling from Penrith.
There were some medium levels of P.B. breaking, and excesses of posted speed limits being performed at the time, for no excusable reasons except for that we were "those guys".
Rest assured we've all grown out of that.
We have a number of those fake freeways in Melbourne... the Calder, Western, and Hume on the outskirts of the city carry huge volumes of traffic and have numerous unprotected T intersections.
Also, regarding Bulli Top interchange, as long as the signage is good it really shouldn't be a problem. No point spending millions shifting ramps and building new bridges when the existing ones work.
Great video, keep up the good work!
You were once able to turn right off Mt Ousley Rd onto New Mt Pleasant Rd to get to Mt Pleasant and Balgownie!
Omg
You used to be able to turn right from Mt Pleasant, but after the 1979 crash they put a concrete barrier down the middle and stopped it. That was scary! Oh…and the F6 north (distributor) didn’t start construction until 1983 not 63 🙂
I never turn right across the M1 at that dodgy intersection. It'sdangerous. All you have to do is turn left, head south for 1km, cross the overpass and straight back on to go up Mt Ousley. Too Easy.
If you think Mount Ousley is a dangerous road. You should go back to the 60s and 70s and 80s. 🎉 before they built the concrete devider down the centre of the road. The number of fatalities that happened on the road was absolutely astronomical, I drove this road weekly from Sydney to the NSW South Coast. You took your life into your own hands every time you drove on this road.
The jersey barrier was built after the May 1979 fatalities.
I don't think I've ever driven that road. but now I'm wondering how it compares to the motorway through the Adelaide hills. Ok, this one has much worse intersections, but it's more the craziness of cars flying past slow trucks I'm curious about
After spending a few years in Adelaide I can confirm they're both on par with each other. Mt Ousley never had a Devils Elbow like Adelaide had, the Bellambi Creek dipper made up for it though.
As a kid we saw a family parked with picnic table set up in one of the emergency run off bays. At the bottom had a car pull across the road in front off us and I ended up, up side down with my back against the windscreen tumbling from the back seat. XT falcon them were the days with drum brakes.
There was also Rixons Pass Road, which was the main road over the mountain before bulli and Mount ousley. Rixons Pass was closed due to WWII, being very invisible from sea as the mountain during that time was pretty much devoid of most vegetation as it was logged heavily for timber for the mines. At the time bulli pass was nothing more than a bullock track. The Motorway title came during Gladys' time as transport when she spent millions rebranding to make it easier to sell.
The at grade intersection was updated 10 or so years ago (maybe more). At the bottom of the mountain, you used to have to turn into the left hand (truck) lane when turning left, now you turn into an additional lane that ends up being the exit to uni. A bit of an improvement, which, alongside better management means that traffic doesn't bank up as badly as it used to when uni is in session (esp the first month or so).
I make that dangerous turn almost everyday for work, it sucksssssss and becomes even more terrifying when people get beeped at for missing "gaps"
Then maybe take the gap ya flop 😜
@@jamesmcmah2020 i do haha, but i have witnessed people being beeped and its scary of whether they will be forced into a possible collision
9:05 this actually isn't too bad as trucks/coaches as 40 kph provide lots of safe merging spaces. The real issue is when a ute towing a 3.5T caravan shits itself heading uphill, with the trailer blocking lanes 1 & 2, with trucks & coaches gunning it uphill.
In the graphic that took you all day to do, you forgot the northbound link from Bulli Pass to the old Princes Highway LOL! Great video though!
I remember when all the tow trucks would line up in the carpark at Old Mt Ousley road every time it rained waiting for the inevitable wreck or wrecks.
Dude! I saw you recording this, drove past you doing the recording Dumfries Ave nearby, before Mt Ousley... this was a few months ago... I live nearby so good to see the local roads in the video and definitely agree the intersection at Mt Ousley to turn right towards Sydney is insanely dangerous and shouldn't be... it's fine at early hours (ie 6am or so) but any other time, very unsafe.
Thanks for a good video mate.
There was only a fatal crash under the Mount Pleasant Rd bridge just days before you posted this.
I drive this road to and from work multiple times a week, I actually like driving along there. Its everyone else that makes it annoying lol
I grew up in Balgownie as a child and remember when you could turn right on the ascent in to Mt Pleasent road across the descending traffic. Makes the right turn across traffic at the base of the descent feel like a breeze.
The Mount Ousley Road looks like a motorway, drives like a motorway and is a motorway. Similar speed restrictions exist on other difficult parts of the M1 in NSW and there are much tighter bends on the Cahill Expressway section. Mount Ousley Road is by far the best and safest road down the Illawarra Escarpment. Bulli Pass and the Illawarra Highway are very steep and have hairpin bends, Lawrence Hargreaves Drive spills you into suburban traffic.
One day when i was heading back from sydney a flash flood hit mt ousley and it was spilling over the concrete barriers in the middle of the highway
I think Queenslands sunshine motorway beats this as Australia’s fake motorway. Sections of it aren’t even dual carriageway, but rather are just a regular two lane road in both directions. and north of Maroochydore, there are just random roundabouts on the motorway. Mount Ousley road is nothing in comparison to the sunshine motorway. Next time you come up to the Sunshine Coast, you have to do a video on the sunshine “fake” motorway. That said, the sunshine motorway south of Maroochydore is actually a standard motorway conditions.
Western freeway M5 more like ‘fake M5’ in Brisbane ain’t much better😂
Problem is there are a lot of other motorways like the Sunshine motorway. It is common to build future motorways as 1 lane each way with 2 land roundabouts as interchanges, until they could be bothered to come back and do it properly. This is exactly what has happened with the Sunshine motorway, and they do it a fair bit with other roads (like the one to Springfield) south of brisbane.
The issue is that roads are extremely expensive and they don't make money, so it's really hard to justify building them.
I must say that north of Maroochydore going to Gympie is some of the best motorway
in the country,and will get better with the Gympie bypass opening soon.
It's largely future proofing and is incredibly standard for how motorways in greenfield areas are built these days.
The corridor for the Sunshine motorway is mostly large enough for a dual carriage motorway. If there isn't enough congestion to justify the full build out, it's better to build the smaller version first with the land reserved for easy expansion later.
You'll notice this all through Caloundra South. There is essentially a planned motorway through this emerging suburban region, but it's current form is a 2 lane single carriage way with oversized round-abouts. This will be perfectly sufficient to service the traffic for the next decade or so. The space required to expand upon it is already reserved, making it an easy expansion when the time comes.
Another good example of this is the centenary highway between Springfield and Yamanto. They built the single carriage way and roundabout intersections a decade ago, to service new developments. In that time, not much has happened, and the single carriage way set up is plenty. Imagine if they'd built it to the full, dual carriage way limited access standard? It'd be a hell of a lot more money for excessive capacity that won't be needed for another 10 or more years?
Not to mention that when the sunshine motorway reaches Mooloolaba you have to turn left onto an onramp to merge onto the road you are already on. Worse if you are going the opposite direction. To continue on the sunshine motorway you have to exit and go around a looped slip lane to continue on the route.
I have the ‘pleasure’ of driving Mt Ousley often. My strategy is to get into the right lane ascending and descending, sit on 80km/h. I’m sure I annoy many would be goons, but c’est la vie!
It’s and awful road, and getting worse as it gets busier.
Back in the day you could turn right from New Mount pleasant road onto the M1, you could also turn right from the M1 into New Mount Pleasant Road. You could in the past turn right from Clive Bissell Drive onto the M1. Crazy stuff.
I used to live down there. Believe it or not, Bulli Tops interchange becomes second nature when you use it all the time.
Mt Pleasant Rd also goes East from Mt Ousley Rd, it doesn't just serve the tiny tiny suburb itself. It runs down to the Northern suburbs, via Balgownie. So a shortcut home for people coming down from Sydney into Corrimal/Balgownie/Fairy Meadow.
THe proposed connection of the F8 up to the M1 was a proposal to use the Metro tunnelling machines once they'd done Sydney. The alignment was going to be underground through and up the escarpment, and they could make it as steep or flat as the terrain and stone would allow. I don't think it was ever gazetted, more or less kicked around as an idea by the press, planners and egineers.
The F8 bypassing Bulli to Lawrence Hargrave Drive is a no-brainer and will turn the old Princes Highway from Corrimal right through to Woonona and Bulli into a nice local road. The by-pass will also go over the greyhound track, so doubly good.
Yep the grade intersection at 10:03 is so dangerous. I nearly t-boned an idiot a few months ago who decided it would be a great idea to pull out 10 metres in front of me. Was on the brakes so hard you have no idea. I've also driven past many cars written off there. Thank god they're finally fixing it.
It's a shame that there isn't a train line that parallels this road. Much tunneling would be required but it would cut Wollongong to Sydney train trips massively. Nobody lives at frigging Otford!
Was the video of the Mt Ousley Road a bit old? Last 2 months, lots of nearby trees were chopped around the bottom of it, to make way for the new bridges, roundabouts & etc.
Thank you Sharath, another wonderful video.
As a long time resident of the Illawarra but infrequent user of Mount Ousley Road, I fully understand what you have described.
I really enjoy your work, looking forward to the next video 😊
The engineering and design of Seacliff bridge is awful. It hasn't really addressed the problems of land slips and rock falls ...simply pushing those events to the ends of the bridge. Subsidence and water movement have caused the bridge to be closed for serious, but ultimately temporary, fixes.
Great video, man i still hate that at level turn to go northbound after 7.30am, i usually just hook it left and turn around at the university, saves me all the headache.
When you could also turn right into that junction from the south it was really dangerous. Been closed for years
Everyone only looked right up the hill and missed the traffic coming from the left
Use this road often and love the excitement it offers. These kind of flawed roads make you more alert as a driver which is something sorely missing from today’s Australia driverscape. Great video
About 2 weeks ago there was a major accident (with fatality and person charged) on a Friday afternoon.
It made a trip from Sydney that should have been 2 hours into 4 and a half hours as all traffic was diverted down Bulli Pass.
the thing is the interchange looks very confusing on paper but in reality its very easy to work out because once the lanes are marked and barricades are up its very easy to see where each road leads
Part of the problem here is that the Illawarra Escarpment is made up almost entirely of material that has fallen off the cliffs, and material that's about to fall off the cliffs. Bulli pass is closed from time to time to allow stabilisation work to be carried out, and has been closed for extended periods by major landslips. (Mount Ousley Rd is also sliding down the hill.) The topography pretty much rules out any sort of straight(ish) surface route at a reasonable grade, and the geology of the area makes tunnelling impractical. It's a crap road, but the cost of upgrading it to anything that approaches an acceptable standard would be prohibitive.
It's a nightmare when U get fog at Bulli Tops.Idiots in 4 WD utes flying past.
Pretty much all of those interchanges had right hand turns on them, even after duplication. There was one for northbound traffic to turn into New Mt Pleasant Road (closed roughly early to mid 90s). Clive Bissel Drive i'm pretty sure had the kind of intersection without turn lanes but could turn both off and onto the motorway. The northbound Appin Road traffic had a right turn lane to get onto Bulli Pass (closed circa 2009). Further up along the Old Princes Highway northbound carriageway, people could turn right both into the Panorama House entry and could turn right out to go north again (closed circa 2009). Also fun little tidbit of info, the gateway centre used to be a Caltex service station.
The road infrastructure in NSW is beyond a joke
The stupidest part of the whole show is at the top of Mt Ousley heading North. When that huge truck stop was built there, they didn't bother putting in a decent extra merging lane (heading north), which, if extended one km, could then function as a safe left-turn into Picton Rd. Both these places are accident black-spots.
I always feel nervous driving up or down Mount Ousley Road. People don't drive to the conditions - and there are too many trucks.
In Europe they just bore a straight tunnel
Except if you did that here it would collapse the whole mountain.
@@carisi2k11 Only because Australia doesn't want to invest in the rest of the worlds processes.
In Australia our politicians are never willing to bore a tunnel. Unless it’s Campbell Newman
@@electro_sykes Unless they get kick backs you mean. Corrupt bastards.
A straight tunnel would be steep and very expensive.
Seen badly loaded trailers start to sway severely down those steep fast hills.
Do not forget the vast improvement that was made to the former Picton Road intersection. That transformation has saved many lives.
Picton Road is going to be upgraded. Ther's a concept design being done at the moment for a future Tender
Good call. It's a scary piece of work! I used to use it semi-regularly for work.
Sharath: now lets disect this motorway
5 seconds later:
Me: uuhhhh, CANT THEY MAKE A NORMAL INTERCHANGE
Oh yeah! Mt Ousley 10 out of 10 on the downhill "keep your wits about you" challenge scale because of trucks, caravans, L platers. Uphill is little more forgiving / predictable. Needs a tunnel bypass from Bulli Tops to sea level.
Like most roads in nsw.. the biggest problem is the drives. To many people on the road that don’t know how to drive. Being able to drive a car and knowing how to drive on a road are 2 totally different things. We have road full of people that should not be behind the wheel of a car.
There's another piece of lost history in the region. There was plan by the DMR in the 80's for an alternate freeway from the F6 near Kembla Grange, which would have gone up the escarpment via Mt Kiera and then would have followed Picton Rd to the F5. The proposal was called the F5-and-a-half (I'm not making this up)
I am glad you have touched on this, because I have got on the wrong roads often. Now I know I need to get across a crazy amount of lanes to get to the right roads this happens less often, but you do need to concentrate big time.
Talking safety, you forgot to mention that the road is continually subsiding. In 2022 the southbound truck lane was closed for months for repairs after it cracked and dropped after a severe rain event. All the pipework & small buildings visible on the uphil side next to the north bound lanes are actually pump stations that continuously pump groundwater out to try and slow the road slipping down the escarpment. In 2022 it was reported they were pumping a million litres a day out during the storms & it still dropped.
I've been to the old Helensburgh Station tunnel site years ago and it is a bit creepy. In the other tunnel on the other side, I heard a moan in the short tunnel. Hopefully you consider doing a video of the old Illawarra alignment and the tunnels. Although some of them are tricky to get through and you have to trudge through some bushland.
You have a remember that M classification doesn't mean grade separated 110km/h roads, think M31 beyond Berrima. Originally when they put in a new numbering system they referred to M as motorway-standard as opposed to just motorway. It's not fake it's just the labelling is misunderstood.
If M doesn't mean fully grade separated, there is no point having it.
Would you believe that in the nineties and naughties the main roads department objected to speeding up the railway from Sutherland to near Wollongong because it would remove car and truck traffic from the M1/Mt Ousley Rd. Result no rail upgrade. 😢😮
Easy to believe, considering that NSW Premier Griener stopped the Maldon Dombarton rail line construction when it was almost complete and would have taken thousands of trucks off Mount Ousley.
Great video that covers a lot of the funny bits about this road. The parts about Bulli top, that you highlight, are more or less what I kinda figured might be the case.
What is the chance of a second part? Either looking at the other bits of the road more (such as Bulli Pass), the northern section overall (aka the road and rail links, since the suchdown of the development of Thirroul by the Land & Enviroment Court meant north is now super limited in the types of builds and work that can be done due to the shutdown on work that blocks the road due to the lack of any alts in place.
Almost makes me wonder if you might do a video in future showing how you might fix the area, if given a chance (but we both know you'll suggest a lot of towers for apartments and the like).
I drive it daily, idiots coming down the mountain tailgating doing 100kph +, there was a fatality on Friday causing chaos !
This RUclipsr knew the history. Mt Ousley Road was also called M1, F6 & Princes Highway as different names at different times. M1 is always different from the relatively new tolled Motorways like M2, M4, M5, M7 & M8.
Great great great topic this one Sharath, and yet again (apologies have been AWOL for a while) you have proven why you now have nearly 43k subs (I remember subscribing when it was under 1k).
This section of roadway...I'm more specifically talking from Picton Rd down to the bottom of Ousley and the long slow painful return trip back up (older truck drivers perspective here 🙄🙄) is one of the biggest pain in the ass sections of roadway now in NSW...there are a few more...Bulli Pass, the old Lapstone Hill climb, Mt Vic, Bellbird Hill, River Lett Hill, Chifley Rd up/down from/to Lithgow (and others further afield I'm sure), that earn the angst of many a driver (again talking in a truck)...damn the Escarpment down into the Illawarra and those damn Blue Mountains 😂😂😂😂
I could go on for ages about the close calls I've had with cars crossing the southbound carriageway to beat the truck coming down the hill, and the many many near sideswipes from drivers (both car and truck alike) that seem to believe their side and rear vision mirrors are just there for aesthetics and are blissfully UNAWARE OF THEIR SURROUNDINGS...idiots...regardless of all that...another impressive production from an equally impressive channel, with an intelligent young man at its helm, keep up the great work!!!
Cheers from the Springs of Jordan...near The Riff 😁😁😀😀
Both Clive Bissell Dr and New Mt Pleasant Rd crossed traffic to allow RH turns in the 80s and earlier. From memory the jersey barrier was installed in the mid to late 80s. Nice review of the route. There was a proposal to connect Bulli Tops to the northern end of the Northern Distributor. The latter was also meant to be fully grade separated in its final form. This connection was marked in street directories for years and reservations put in place to allow for it.
Uhmmm… The M1 Adelaide South East approach would give Mt Ousley Road a run for its ‘Fake Motorway’, money. So many disasters have resulted in trucks loosing control while trying to brake and slow down during its steep descent and suburban approach!
So many disasters? Besides being near Adelaide?
The M1 is a legitimate freeway.
The reason why half these trucks lose control (note only one "o", there's no such thing as "loosing") is they're not being maintained properly, or, being driven by incompetent drivers from overseas.
EXACTLY.
Loosing is the present participle of loose.
In this instance, it's someone who has used "loose" or "loosing" instead of "lose" or "losing."
I remember the tragic accident on Mt Ousley decades ago when a truck trailer axle part came loose and went through an oncoming windscreen… 😢
I remember that and it's always been on my mind.
I learned to drive on Bulli Pass and it’s many intersections- talk about a baptism by fire!
I’ll never forget driving down mount ousley road a few years ago on my learners at about 8pm at night. Being from further north I’d never been on the road and was unaware of its conditions. Since I was on my learners and could only go 90 I always stuck in the left lane as everyone would pass me on a normal freeway. I didn’t realise however that trucks could only go 40 so as I was coming down I could see very well and was staying in the left lane when I came near a truck so went to try and overtake it and as I did someone came hooning down in the centre lane well above 80 and I almost got wedged in between the truck and the car. I’ll never forget the panic I felt at that moment.
8:10 There are 2 arrester beds
First one is at 8:20, just out of view, but it is to the left of the divider and light pole, you can see the other light pole where the arrester bed is
Second one is at 9:49, you can see it on the top right(10:04 shows a better view of it)
For some stupid reason, HWP love to park at the entry points to these ramps
I have been down Mt Ously Rd plenty of times l was a courier for 35 year's and did make many deliveries to Wollongong and it is reasonably scary l knew about the fogs on the road never struck a fog until one trip down to Wollongong and l never realised how bad the fog could be in my whole career as a courier to be perfectly honest it was the most frightening drive of my life l couldn't believe how dangerous the road can come with the introduction of a very thick fog
I remember driving down this road on my L's. It was terrifying. That intersection at 0:37 is so awful, I can't believe it still exists.
As someone who lived in the Gong for a while, I know better than to try that right hand turn onto Mt Ousley Rd. With cars hooning at >80k's and trucks winding up after the hill it's really hard to get across most times.
Better to keep on going down the old highway, turn right onto Memorial Drive (heading south towards Nowra) and then hoon into the right lane to take the Sydney exit that way. You don't get much time to cross lanes but at least it's only one lane change and you're in with a reasonable chance.
We turn left onto the "motorway", then left lane exit and over the bridge to the uni side, then back onto the "motorway". Much quicker with no traffic lights 👌
@@Lillith444 oh yes that makes sense
But did you hoon?
One Sunday night driving back to Sydney, Mt Ousley was closed for roadworks, had to detour via old Bulli Pass, which is virtually like driving straight up a vertical cliff face, plus hairpin bends. Mt Ousley is a bloody autobahn in comparison!
You should absolutely make a video about the Sunshine Motorway
Many sections of Princes Highway have 40km/h limit. Many local streets & main roads in Australia have another name as 'Highway'.
Mate! Your episode made it to the Illawarra Mercury! 👏👏😂😂
The deviation at Bellambi Ck was built because the corner near the end was the first corner after leaving Sydney that you had to think about. 75km/hr recommended. Too challenging for some drivers.
It wasnt till recently that I found out that the sea cliff bridge was a public road as i had always seen that road empty in promo videos of Australia with like one or two cars. I always thought it was some random uncomplete road that looked cool. No wonder every promo video has it.
And like the Sydney Harbour Bridge the SeaCliff Bridge became better known when used for F1 filming.
Never thought of it being dangerous. Maybe to those who don’t drive it regularly. And the FB was called that when it was originally to be built as freeway standard. The plans for same existed way back in DMR days.
I remember going to Wollongong and back as a kid and always asking my parents to stop over at the gelato place (labeled Southen Gateway Centre at around 4:50) and them always telling me that we would "stop by on the way back."
Apparently northbound Mt Ousley Road doesnt allow you to stop by the gelato place...
Banger video tho!!
I worked on the tender for the Mt Ousley Interchange Project. Its going to be a very difficult project to build with live traffic. It will be great though, with the heavy vehicle bypass and grade separated interchange though.
9:50 - U GATTA BE KIDDIN ME!!!! THAT IS UNEXEPTIBLE!!! (by the way no one is going to skip your videos, because they are some of the best on the internet, but it makes sense the way you laid the video out, but you're very good at presentation)
Some stupid people still attempt to turn right during busy hours which is basically not possible. Clearly going south & use the flyover to turn & merge before UOW is much safer & easier.
@@yesbeautyfly I'm just happy they are about to fix this problem
@@cliffwoodbury5319
Construction has started months earlier before this video. Lots of machines right now.
I always love to drive it. Up or down . The views on the way down are stunning. Not everything has to be straight and flat it would be boring. 😃
I like your videos- nice work.
The interchanges at Bulli tops are fine to drive on.
The work at the bottom is now underway.
I’d be interested in your thoughts on the proposed Picton road / Hume intersection. Looks like a ridiculous design with more traffic lights when the overpass is so obviously what is needed ?