"Hive of activity" on new section of the Newcastle Inner City Bypass

Newcastle motorists are seeing work progressing well on the new Rankin Park to Jesmond section of the Newcastle Inner City Bypass with early works, including utility relocation, already underway.
Transport for NSW Region North Director Anna Zycki said the Australian and NSW governments are funding the $450 million Rankin Park to Jesmond section of the Newcastle Inner City Bypass. 
“This project will provide traffic relief to the surrounding road network, in particular the existing route of Lookout Road, Croudace Street and Newcastle Road, which is used by about 40,000 to 60,000 vehicles each day,” Ms Zycki said. 
“The new bypass will remove up to 30,000 vehicles each day from the existing route which is a huge win for the community and freight operators.
“Once completed, motorists travelling on the new section of bypass will avoid up to 11 sets of traffic lights along the existing route.”
Ms Zycki said the worksite has been a hive of activity, with early work well underway including the completion of the archaeological salvage of shanty town ‘Hollywood’.
Utility investigations, installation and relocation are well underway,” Ms Zycki said. 
“We have also completed the archaeological salvage of the historical 1920’s era Hollywood camp. 
“Our archaeologists unearthed a multitude of artefacts from the site, which was home to scores of people who became homeless during the Great Depression.
“Road users will start to see work ramping up with the installation of safety barriers, line marking, and traffic signage will continue to support road realigning and adjustments.”
Ms Zycki said preparation is also underway for upcoming bridgework at the northern interchange.
“Piling rigs arrived on site in mid-June and bridge piling work has started,” Ms Zycki said.
“There are six bridges being built as part of the bypass and more than 60 piles will be installed for these bridges.
“Cumulatively, drill holes for the piles will be more than 1.2 kilometres deep, which is more than the Eiffel Tower stacked end to end four times.
“There’ll also be 190 tonnes of reinforcement used in the piles, equating to the weight of more than 32 elephants.
“The new online interactive project portal is also now live and features an interactive map showing the project design, before and after images, animation videos, work activity and more.”
The portal can be viewed at https://caportal.com.au/tfnsw/rankin-park-to-jesmond/
The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.