The Pacific Highway upgrade is a significant project that will provide improved road safety and reduced travel times in NSW.

The goal is to build a four-lane divided road from Hexham (near Newcastle) to Queensland.

The upgrades are being completed in three stages with the aim of completing the project by 2020.

Holiday Traffic Jams

But for anyone used to driving the annual trek up and down the Pacific Highway during the summer holidays, you’ll know that the road upgrade is very much a work in progress.

During peak periods in the last summer holidays, motorists experienced significant travel delays as traffic lined up in queues around key bottlenecks. One of the worst bottlenecks was at Macksville which saw queues up to 20 kilometres long.

Hopefully, these traffic delays will be a thing of the past once the highway upgrade is completed in 2020.

Are We There Yet?

You can keep track of progress on the Pacific Highway upgrade on the RMS website.

The expected completion dates for the various Pacific Highway upgrade projects are:

• Oxley Highway to Kundabung – 2017
• Sancrox Interchange – mid 2015
• Kundabung to Kempsey – 2017
• Frederickton to Eungai – 2016
• Warrell Creek to Nambucca Heads – 2017
• Nambucca Heads to Urunga – end 2016
• Woolgoolga to Ballina – 2020
• Pimlico to Teven – mid 2016
• Tintenbar to Ewingsdale – second half 2015