EXTENDING the F6 motorway through Sutherland Shire and St George is a key component of a draft transport master plan the state government is expected to release today.
However, just when it might be built depends on an infrastructure strategy due out later in the month.
The master plan was drawn up by Transport for NSW, while the strategy was being prepared by Infrastructure NSW, headed by former premier Nick Greiner.
A spokesman for Roads Minister Duncan Gay said yesterday the draft master plan would be "adapted accordingly" once the contents of the Infrastructure NSW strategy were known.
Mr Greiner's group will recommend the new motorways that should be built in Sydney and in what order.
Cronulla MP Mark Speakman said the F6 faced "stiff competition" from other proposals.
Liberal MPs from Sutherland Shire, St George and the Illawarra made a joint submission to Infrastructure NSW that it be given top priority, but if not, that it should be next.
"At least it will be back on the agenda, which it wasn't under the Labor government because Kristina Keneally had it deleted from the metropolitan transport plan," he said.
Mr Speakman said that while the government wouldn't be bound to accept the recommendations of Infrastructure NSW, he expected it would do so.
Rockdale MP John Flowers said he strongly supported the project, subject to community consultation.
"My preference is that it be underground as much as is practicable," he said.
‘‘On many occasions, Rockdale residents have contacted me, supporting the construction of the F6.’’
The F6 corridor was set aside in the 1951 County of Cumberland planning scheme.
Then-transport minister Carl Scully gazetted a notice that the corridor be used only for public transport in 2002, but this was reversed after Michael Costa took on the portfolio.
Should the F6 extension be the government’s top priority?
