Three-stage $275m Nelson Bay Road upgrade unveiled after former route scrapped

newy.com.au – The Minns government has abandoned plans for an 11-kilometre road on a new corridor between Williamtown and Bobs Farm, replacing them with a staged $275 million upgrade.

The revised program would begin with a new 2.8-kilometre, four-lane road between Salt Ash and Bobs Farm. It also brings an eight kilometre duplication between Fern Bay and Williamtown into the project, while planning continues for the eventual duplication of Nelson Bay Road between Williamtown and Salt Ash.

Short term safety and access works on the Williamtown–Salt Ash section are expected to start in 2027. However, the government has not announced construction or completion dates for the Salt Ash–Bobs Farm stage, the Fern Bay–Williamtown duplication or the full corridor.

The NSW and Australian governments have committed $275 million towards the program, including $137.5 million from the Commonwealth.

B63 Nelson Bay Road is the main 43-kilometre link between Newcastle, Newcastle Airport and the Tomaree Peninsula. It carries more than 25,000 vehicles a day, with traffic increasing during holiday periods.

The government says the revised priorities account for expected traffic changes when the M1 extension to Raymond Terrace opens. Traffic pressure is forecast to ease between Medowie and Richardson roads, while Richardson Road is expected to become a more important route between Port Stephens, Sydney and the motorway.

Growth around Newcastle Airport was cited as the reason for extending the upgrade program to Fern Bay.

Road safety has been a persistent concern along the sections now covered by the upgrade. A newy.com.au analysis of Transport for NSW’s latest five-year crash dataset found 92 reported crashes on Nelson Bay Road across Fern Bay, Fullerton Cove, Williamtown, Salt Ash and Bobs Farm between 2020 and 2024. Three were fatal, 56 resulted in injuries and 33 were non-casualty towaway crashes. The incidents killed three people and injured 90, including 34 people who were seriously injured, with all three fatal crashes occurring in 2024.

The decision overturns the preferred route selected by Transport for NSW in December 2021. That plan envisaged about 11 kilometres of new divided road from the completed dual carriageway at Bobs Farm to the Cabbage Tree Road roundabout at Williamtown, with a separate connection to Salt Ash.

The existing Nelson Bay Road would largely have remained as a local access route.

The off-line(new route) option received substantial public support during consultation. Of 105 submissions expressing a clear route preference, 80 supported the fully off-line corridor and 19 preferred upgrading the existing road.

A separate petition carrying 590 signatures backed the existing corridor, partly because of concerns that a bypass would reduce passing trade for Salt Ash businesses.

Transport’s 2021 assessment found the off-line route offered the best value for money and recorded unanimous support for it through the agency’s multi-criteria assessment. It also warned that environmental and property studies were preliminary and that further design, assessment, land acquisition and business-case work would be required.

The government now says the route is unfeasible because of its engineering, environmental and property complexities, access constraints and cost. It has not released the technical assessment behind that conclusion or disclosed an estimated price for the abandoned design.

Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison described the former approach as “never realistic”, saying it would have divided agricultural and environmentally sensitive land.

The previous alignment was selected under the Coalition government but remained under development after Labor took office. Transport was contacting potentially affected property owners in July 2025, while an expression-of-interest process for design and environmental assessment services was advertised in February 2026.

Port Stephens MP Kate Washington said the long-running upgrade saga was “coming to an end”.

Federal Member for Paterson, Meryl Swanson said ““Port Stephens has needed a better plan for Nelson Bay Road for a long time, and locals deserve to know these upgrades will genuinely serve their community.”

Member for Newcastle, Tim Crakanthorp said “I am particularly excited by Stage 2 which will be a huge relief to both the increasing number of commuters heading to Newcastle as well as anyone getting off a plane heading south.”