{"id":527840,"date":"2026-03-09T01:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527840\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T01:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:38:14","slug":"great-western-highway-shuts-in-both-directions-due-to-defect-at-victoria-pass-convict-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527840\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Western Highway shuts in both directions due to defect at Victoria Pass convict bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The main road linking Sydney to western New South Wales has shut after cracks were detected in a bridge built by convicts.<\/p>\n

The Great Western Highway is now closed in both directions and there is no timeline for when it will reopen.<\/p>\n

Initially, it was set to be impacted for four days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) said it was “an evolving and complex situation”.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, eastbound lanes at Victoria Pass, near Little Hartley, were shut when damage was detected in the road surface of Mitchell’s Causeway, known as The Convict Bridge.<\/p>\n

But overnight on Sunday, westbound lanes were also closed after geotechnical crews identified major issues.<\/p>\n

\"Convict<\/p>\n

The hand built convict bridge remains part of the Great Western Highway today.\u00a0 (Supplied: Google Maps\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Deputy secretary for road maintenance and resilience Matt Fuller said assessment teams had been working over the weekend to determine the risk.<\/p>\n

“We’ve identified further cracks in the pavement and our geotechnical information and monitoring has confirmed there’s movement in the road’s substructure,” he said.<\/p>\n

The heritage structure was built by convicts in the 1830s and forms part of the steep, windy thoroughfare used by thousands of vehicles daily.<\/p>\n

“Given those sensitivities and obviously with the overriding consideration of safety, we’ve taken the precaution to close both lanes,” Mr Fuller said.<\/p>\n

\"black<\/p>\n

The Convict Bridge at Mitchell’s Causeway was built in the 1830s. (Supplied: Blue Mountains Historical Society archives)<\/p>\n

“We understand that’s going to be frustrating for motorists and we certainly appreciate their patience and understanding,” he said.<\/p>\n

Motorists travelling eastbound, towards Sydney, are being diverted through Lithgow via Chifley Road to the Bells Line of Road or the Darling Causeway.<\/p>\n

People travelling westbound are being detoured along the Darling Causeway at Mount Victoria to the Bells Line of Road and Chifley Road.<\/p>\n

Roadworks are also taking place on the diversion roads, which is adding to the congestion.<\/p>\n

Approximately 11,000 vehicles travel on the Great Western Highway between Little Hartley and Lithgow each day, according to TfNSW.<\/p>\n

About 1,800 of them are heavy vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The closure is a major problem for truck drivers, with restrictions on heavy vehicles through the main street of Lithgow.<\/p>\n

\"road<\/p>\n

The Great Western Highway is shut from Lithgow, with access allowed to residents only.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

NSW Regional Roads and Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison said by Saturday, engineers were feeling positive the road would reopen by Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But last night they saw some cracking actually opening … they could see it visually that there was opening cracks and they were quite concerned about that,” Ms Aitchison said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“While that’s happening, while there’s still movement on the slope we have to use an abundance of caution.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Highway headache politics\u00a0<\/p>\n

The need to improve the road link to the state’s west has been a long running political issue that locals have been dealing with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

Bathurst MP Paul Toole has been lobbying for major upgrades to the Great Western Highway for years.\u00a0 (ABC Central West: Lani Oataway)<\/p>\n

Shadow Minister for Regional Roads and Transport Paul Toole said commuters had reported having one to two hours added to their trips due to the diversions and congestion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s caused major confusion and chaos,” Mr Toole said.<\/p>\n

“That impacts on productivity, it impacts on people having appointments and getting to Sydney, missing timelines they require.<\/p>\n

As the state Member for Bathurst, Mr Toole has been highly critical of the state government for abandoning the NSW Nationals’ plans for the 11-kilometre Great Western Highway Tunnel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From Blackheath to Little Hartley, it would have traversed the land beneath Victoria Pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We saw the federal and state Labor governments rip $4.5 billion out of any of the upgrades or work that was required for the tunnel on that section of the road,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tunnel itself had not been funded or definitely costed under the NSW Coalition, but was estimated to have a price tag of $8 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The National Party announced the 11-kilometre tunnel from Blackheath to Little Hartley in 2019. (Supplied: Transport for NSW)<\/p>\n

In 2023, when the state Labor Party vowed to pause the project, it said the cost had blown out beyond that to approximately $1 billion per kilometre for the tunnel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Mr Toole said the state government had not come up with a viable alternative, which is proving to be a critical error.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re not seeing any improvements. We’re continually seeing the road closed week after week,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We need to make sure that have a road corridor that is fit for standard, but is also going to continue to meet the growing needs and demands of our communities.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/p>\n

Emergency and urgent roadworks have been taking place on the Victoria Pass since Thursday. (Supplied: Live Traffic)<\/p>\n

The state government’s recently released White Paper for Sydney to the Central West set out its plan for the road corridors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In it, Ms Aitchison described the former Coalition’s plans for the tunnel as a “fantasy”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey announced a megaproject they never properly funded, never finished planning and never intended to deliver,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Then they walked away, leaving the Blue Mountains and Central West to deal with the consequences.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The White Paper instead lays out other road upgrades, speed limit changes, making the roads more resilient, improving rail services and freight efficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The main road linking Sydney to western New South Wales has shut after cracks were detected in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[262396,262393,43,44,262395,41,39,42,40,262394,242866],"class_list":["post-527840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-convict-bridge","tag-great-western-highway","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-road-closed","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-victoria-pass","tag-western-nsw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}