newy.com.au – The 15-kilometre M1 extension from Black Hill to Raymond Terrace will open to traffic in the early hours of Friday, 11 September 2026, allowing motorists to bypass five sets of traffic lights and the bottlenecks around Hexham and Heatherbrae.
The Australian and NSW governments estimate the new motorway will cut peak-hour journeys by seven to nine minutes and divert up to 25,000 vehicles a day from the existing route, easing pressure on roads shared by Hunter commuters, freight operators and North Coast holiday traffic.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in the Hunter on Wednesday, 9 September, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony ahead of Friday’s opening.
Often referred to locally as the Hexham bypass, the extension connects the existing M1 directly with the Pacific Highway at Raymond Terrace, taking through traffic away from the route across Hexham Bridge. It has two lanes in each direction and interchanges at Black Hill, Tarro, Tomago and Raymond Terrace.
Its largest structure is a 2.6-kilometre viaduct crossing the Hunter River and floodplain, the Main North railway line and the New England Highway. The motorway includes 11 bridges, with its interchanges providing connections to the surrounding highway and local road network.
The extension forms part of a $2.24 billion package that also includes the separate Hexham Straight widening project on the existing Pacific Highway. The Australian Government is contributing $1.792 billion and the NSW Government $448 million to the combined works.
Mr Albanese said the investment would improve the movement of people and freight through the region.
“This is what investing in infrastructure is all about. We’re cutting travel times, getting trucks and freight moving and building for the future,” he said.
Premier Chris Minns said motorists would notice the change from the outset.
“It means shorter trips, less traffic on local roads and a much better connection between Newcastle, the Hunter and the rest of the state,” Mr Minns said.
Friday’s opening follows more than two decades of planning and development, with route assessments dating to 2004 and construction getting underway in 2023.
The road was originally forecast to open in 2028. By April this year, the governments had brought the target forward to late 2026 and announced the northern section bypassing Heatherbrae was complete. That section remained closed while work continued on the southern connection.
Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King credited the construction workforce with bringing the opening forward.
“We planned to open this project in 2028, they got it done one and a half years early,” Ms King said.
More than 2,700 workers helped build the motorway, recording more than four million hours of work. The governments said 70 per cent of the workforce came from the Hunter, while 99 apprentices and trainees gained experience on the project.
Federal Member for Paterson Meryl Swanson thanked those involved in its construction.
“This project belongs to the thousands of local workers who helped make it happen. From the engineers and planners to the crews on the ground, thank you,” Ms Swanson said.
Construction involved moving more than 1.6 million cubic metres of earth and importing and placing more than 720,000 tonnes of rock. The governments said 96 per cent of construction waste was diverted from landfill and 435 habitat structures were installed to support native wildlife.
Contractors will remain after the motorway opens to carry out landscaping, monitoring and targeted maintenance.
The new connection is also intended to improve access to Newcastle Airport and the Port of Newcastle, supporting freight movements and the Hunter’s growing population.
NSW Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison said the project would play an important role as the region expanded.
“Almost 950,000 people are expected to call the Hunter home by 2041 and our roads have a vital role to play in how the region functions,” Ms Aitchison said.
The extension addresses a gap left after the broader Pacific Highway duplication program, which delivered 657 kilometres of divided highway between Hexham and the Queensland border. That program was completed in December 2020 after an investment of about $15 billion, but through traffic in the Hunter still had to leave the M1 and negotiate traffic lights.
Mr Albanese said the new motorway would extend uninterrupted travel along the east coast.
“It means motorists will be able to travel from Melbourne all the way to Coffs Harbour without hitting a single traffic light or roundabout and we’re getting on with finishing the Coffs Harbour Bypass too,” he said.
Further north, the 14-kilometre Coffs Harbour bypass will take traffic west of the city and avoid up to 12 sets of lights. The NSW Government’s published timetable has that bypass opening to traffic at the end of 2026, with overall completion scheduled for late 2027.
The governments say the Sydney–Brisbane motorway route will be free of traffic lights once both links are operating.
