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Feasibility study looks at increasing truck capacity on M5

Study to look at upgrading M5 to increase number of trucks travelling to and from Port Botany

A feasibility study into upgrading the M5 to support more trucks travelling to and from Port Botany will begin this month.

The federal and New South Wales governments have committed $25 million and $20 million respectively towards the study, which will also examine a proposed metro line to boost rail patronage.

Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Anthony Albanese says both governments expect the study to be completed by mid-2009.

The Rudd Government sees an upgraded M5 as the key to meeting the growth in the road freight task as well as account for the increasing number of vehicles using the motorway.

“Upgrading of the M5 East corridor has the potential to support the thousands of additional trucks that will be heading to and from an expanded Port Botany as well as the rapidly growing suburbs of Sydney’s south west,” Albanese says.

“Already 96,000 vehicles a day use the M5 East and this is likely to grow not least because the number of containers moving through the Port is expected to more than double to 3.6 million in less than two decades.”

Albanese says the rail study will identify the best route options based on revenue, cost and an estimation of how many commuters will use the metro line.

The project is designed to account for population growth in Greater Western Sydney, which is predicted to grow another 500,000 the next 25 years.

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