Sydney’s newest road tunnel features state-of-the-art pretty lights and colours.
The three lighting installations along the length of the NorthConnex tunnel have been designed to keep drivers alert and engaged while driving. They are an Australian first and needed to be since saftey is paramount as the twin nine-kilometre tunnels reach depths of up to 90 metres.
The intention behind the contemporary tunnel lighting was to break up the length of the tunnel by giving drivers visual cues, which would, in turn, make driving safer and much more interesting. It sounds kind of counter-intuitive to this average-joe but since I’m no expert and something like 50,000 tests and checks have been completed, I’m going to keep my opinion to myself because I’m probably, most likely, almost certainly, wrong.
Each installation runs approximately 160 metres in length and will only take a few seconds to drive past or through, which means that at $7.91 for cars per trip and $23.73 for trucks, seeing these light installations—a starscape, native birds, and trees—won’t come cheap.
Silhouettes of native birds will mark the entraces at either end of the NorthConnex tunnel, which, when open, will connect the M1 Pacific Motorway to the M2 and reduce travel times along Pennant Hills Road reduced by up to 15 minutes.
A starscape simulating the different intensity of stars will be on display in the Southbound tunnel while a backlit silhouette of trees will grace the sides of the Northbound tunnel.
More than one million cubic metres of earth that was removed during the tunnel’s construction has been used to partially refill the Hornsby Quarry into a Centennial Park of the north.
The NorthConnex Tunnel will open on 31 October, 2020.
Check all three out in 360 degrees here.
(Featured image: @mattkeanmp)