Newell Highway
The Newell Highway is a national highway in New South Wales, Australia. It provides the major road link between southeastern Queensland and Victoria via central NSW and as such carries large amounts of freight. At in length, the Newell is the longest highway in NSW, and passes through fifteen local government areas. The highway is part of Australian national route 39 and was signposted accordingly until 2013. Since then it has been signposted as NSW route A39.
Traffic volumes along the Newell Highway vary from around 1,200 to 4,000 vehicles per day in rural areas. In Dubbo, the largest urban centre through which the highway passes, average daily traffic volumes are in the order of 20,000 vehicles a day. Many heavy vehicles use the Newell Highway – between 26 per cent and 52 per cent of all traffic, depending on the point along the highway. At one point in the Riverina region of NSW, the highway carries approximately 1,900 vehicles daily, of which about 32 per cent is heavy vehicles; while at another point in the north of the state, which carries the largest number of heavy vehicles, on average a truck passes every 60 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The highway is named in honour of H. H. Newell, the first Commissioner for Main Roads in New South Wales. It carries NSW route A39 signage for its entire length.
Other than short four-lane lengths within some of the urban areas through which it passes, the Newell Highway is a single carriageway, two-lane road, although there are many overtaking lanes, with further overtaking lanes under construction up until 2021
The speed limit on most rural sections of the highway is.
Route
The terrain that the highway traverses is generally flat to gently undulating, with long, straight sections joined by the occasional curved section. However, passing through the Warrumbungle Range, there are steeper grades and tighter curves than on the rest of the highway.The highway runs generally north-south, parallel to the coast of NSW, about inland, and is the most direct road link from Victoria to southeastern Queensland, bypassing the more urbanised and congested coastal areas of the state, and in doing so avoiding the difficult coastal topography traversed by the Pacific Highway.
From its northern terminus at Goondiwindi on the Queensland-NSW border, where it meets the Cunningham and Leichhardt Highways, and forms the southward extension of the Cunningham Highway from Warwick and Brisbane, the Newell runs south across the Queensland-New South Wales border through Boggabilla, Moree, Narrabri, Coonabarabran, Gilgandra, Dubbo, Parkes, Forbes, West Wyalong, Narrandera, Jerilderie, and. Its southern terminus is where it crosses the Murray River at Tocumwal and meets the Goulburn Valley Highway in Victoria. The Goulburn Valley Highway forms the next section of national route 39 south towards Melbourne via Shepparton and Seymour, where it joins the Hume Highway.
The Newell intersect the following highways:
Bruxner, Carnarvon and Gwydir, Kamilaroi, Oxley , Castlereagh and Oxley , Golden and Mitchell, Mid-Western, Mid-Western, Sturt and Riverina.
The Newell Highway is located entirely west of the Great Dividing Range, running largely along the foot of the western slopes of the range, and as such crosses nine major rivers, all west-flowing from the Great Dividing Range. From north to south these rivers are the Macintyre, the Gwydir, the Mehi, the Namoi, the Castlereagh, the Macquarie, the Lachlan, the Murrumbidgee, and the Murray. Some sections of the Newell Highway are subject to periodic flooding from these rivers, particularly north of Moree, at Dubbo, and south of Narrandera.
Naming and numbering
The route now known as the Newell Highway was proclaimed as State Highway 17 in July 1938, and in July 1941 named in honour of H. H. Newell following his death in office. At the time of the gazettal of state highway 17, it followed existing roads as far as possible, but between Coonabarabran and Narrabri and between Narrandera and West Wyalong no road existed. The section through the Pilliga Scrub between Coonabarabran and Narrabri was constructed during 1941-42 as a wartime defence project, and the section between Narrandera and West Wyalong was constructed in 1946-49. In 1952 the ultimate gazetted route of the highway between Narrandera and West Wyalong was altered from its original 1938 gazetted route.Under the original national road numbering scheme in 1954, national route 39 was to run from the Hume Highway at Seymour, via Shepparton Tocumwal, Finley, Narrandera, West Wyalong, Forbes, Parkes, Dubbo, Gilgandra, Coonabarabran, Narrabri, Moree, Goondiwindi, Moonie, Miles and Banana to Rockhampton, to connect with the Bruce Highway. Consequently the Newell Highway, as part of this route, was signposted in 1965 with the standard black and white national route markers. On 15 January 1993, following the passage of the Australian Land Transport Development Act 1988, the Australian Government assumed financial responsibility from the NSW government for the upkeep and improvement of the Newell Highway. It also assumed responsibility for the onward connectors from either end of the Newell Highway - the Goulburn Valley Highway in Victoria and the Cunningham Highway in Queensland. The black and white national route shields were then replaced with green and gold shields. These in turn were replaced in 2013 by the alpha-numerical shields of the NSW state-based numbering system.
Some sections of the route of the Newell Highway are shared with the routes of other highways. From north to south these are the Gwydir at Moree, the Kamilaroi at Narrabri, the Oxley, the Castlereagh through Gilgandra, the Mid-Western between Marsden and West Wyalong, and the Riverina.
Route development
Completion of the sealing of the full length of the highway occurred in 1972.Town centre bypasses have been provided in Moree, Dubbo, Parkes and West Wyalong. A town bypass at Ardlethan has also been constructed.