PACIFIC HIGHWAY
Section: Maria River
Looking south towards the Maria River. Nov 2005.
At the Maria River, 8-10km south of Kempsey, a short section of dual carriageways exists between just south of the river and where the northern end of Scrubby Creek Rd joins the highway. This section of dual carriageway was constructed rather hastily (and thus it is not of the same quality as other sections of dual carriageway on the Pacific Highway) as a reaction to two horrific bus crashes in the mid-1980s. The work was opened to traffic in September 1988. Interestingly, the twin bridges over the Maria River have been striped for only one lane in each direction, meaning that there is only one lane in each direction for the southernmost 300m of the dual carriageways.
The original route of the highway is now known as Scrubby Creek Rd. Rather than joining the existing highway on the north side of the Maria River as Scrubby Creek Rd currently does, the highway formerly bridged the river and continued fairly straight-forwardly into Old Coast Road, which is located to the west of the current highway on the southern side of the river.
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Looking north at the beginning of the Maria River dual carriageways. Nov 2005. |
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Looking south at Kemps Rd. It is unusual that there are two bridges over the Maria River and both of them only have one lane of traffic. Aug 2004. |
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Looking north at the northern end of the dual carriageways. You can see the old alignment of the highway (Scrubby Creek Rd). Nov 2005. |