If you are driving to or through Sydney from a regional area after the 31st March, 2013 you will need to know the names and route numbers of existing roads forced on us all by our governments. Some years ago now, the previous NSW Government resolved to include NSW in a programme to rename several major roads and introduce British style alpha-numeric highway numbering.

I'm neither here nor there with what is about to happen though I do consider it a sheer waste of money - money that could be better spent on other things. The current conservative government is talking up the idea though they'd look silly if they didn't. The new signage is in place and has been paid for and the existing road names and the reassurance sheilds we've come to know and love will be removed forever after the 31st March.

Some of the key roads are as follows:-

The F3 Freeway from Wahroonga to Beresfield will be renumbered to M1 and renamed to Pacific Motorway.
The F5 Freeway between The Crossroads and Mittagong will be renumbered M31 and renamed to Hume Motorway.
The F6 Freeway from Heathcote to Bulli will also carry the M1 route number and be renamed Princes Motorway.

All other state, interstate and national highways will get the same changes to their signage. Some roads will lose their route number altogether, for example the Putty Road from Windsor to Singleton.

The classification of Motorway will apply to all freeway-standard dual carriageways in NSW despite it only being used in the past to classify a road carrying a toll. Lots of people are asking for a clarification on this.

RMS bureaucrats claim that your drive will be quicker, more comfortable and safer once the new naming and numbering system is rolled out. Don't ask me how they work that out - it seems like change for change sake to me. If you are rolling your eyes and feel bewildered by it all then the government's plan has already started working.

If you operate a GPS unit in your car, you'll need to do a map upgrade for the GPS to display the route numbers and names in the same format as road signage.

RMS bureaucrats claim that your drive will be quicker, more comfortable and safer

Ah, that old cliched chestnut. Has there ever been a press release or ministerial statement about any new road scheme that hasn't included it?

Heh, Probably not. There always seems to be exactly three shortlisted benefits to something they want to give us, usually based on their perception of "I've done a great job".

Two roads I drive regularly out of Sydney are the Great Western Highway and the New England Highway - both of which could do with a large slice of the $20m they spent on new signage. The present system has worked for more than 40 years and even predates the County of Cumberland urban route plan which also got shelved some time ago (probably because it was another project too ambitious to complete). I don't know what part the current arrangement wouldn't work after the 31st March. Anyway, that is my political beef for the year.

When it comes to major roads in the Greater Sydney area, I usually say that if it wasn't built by the late 1970's it probably never will be.

And the profligate usage of tax money by governments of all persuasions in re-badging departments/authorities makes my blood boil.

Yep
as clever as dropping the Newell limit to 100 and then back to 110 six months later.
I forget how many squillion that cost.

I could see adding the new sign with the new road name under the existing old road name sign. And leave the old names up for several years, so people with old maps or GPSs from out of town can still find their way around.

You could have called them interstates, but you drive on the left side.

With most people here being resistant to change for change sake I'd say that the time-honoured tradition here will continue and people will just stick with the old names for all informal discussions.

people will just stick with the old names for all informal discussions.

Yep, the F3 will be called that for a long time to come.

... and what happened to my avatar??? The URL is still valid.

Your avatar is working for me. An Airzone mantel radio.

Regarding highway names and numbers, traditionally the freeways and motorways in NSW have never been given names and have always gone by their County of Cumberland Road Scheme numbers even though the shields that identified them disappeared when the Metroad shields were introduced to replace them and the Ring Road shields. At least at that time, about 1989 I think, the shape of the sheilds changed to reflect an expanded scheme but the numbering stayed pretty much the same.

The original termination point for the F3 was the Gladesville Bridge which is why it, along with the Tarban Creek Bridge and Figtree Bridge are so big. That said, I am glad that is one project the government didn't finish because if F3 traffic (all 160,000 cars daily) was fed to Victoria Road then the whole traffic system would be, well to say it in a G-rated way, a nightmare.

Your avatar is working for me. An Airzone mantel radio.

Well, that's bizarre as all I get is the text "GTC's avatar".

Yes, I recall the opening of the F3 and having to pay a toll (20c ?) at Berowra back when it didn't go much further than that.

One toll at Berowra and another at Mooney Mooney just in from Peat Island. When the Hawkesbury River Bridges were completed the two tolls were merged and taken at Berowra. An extra 10c was levied to pay for the bridges. That's how they managed to get 20c + 20c = 50c.

Yes, I just did a SHIFT + Refresh and your avatar disappears. Looks like the host server isn't feeding it to us here. I've captured the image and will host it here if you like.

I've captured the image and will host it here if you like.

Yes, please.

Doneskies.

I noticed you linked with a short URL. These can sometimes be unreliable and perhaps the source of the delink.

Not to worry. It's now valve-powered.