Newcastle Inner City Bypass is a freeway in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia. Originally cobbled together from a collection of arterial roads, it has been slowly upgraded and lengthened in sections over the years to a motorway-standard bypass through the inner western suburbs of Newcastle.

Quick Facts Newcastle Inner City Bypass New South Wales, Coordinates ...

Newcastle Inner City Bypass New South Wales
Newcastle Inner City Bypass
Coordinates	32°59′40.4″S 151°41′16.1″E 32°51′51.1″S 151°42′12.6″E
General information
Type	Highway
Length	15.6 km (9.7 mi) (upon completion)
Gazetted	July 1946 (as State Highway 23)[1]
Route number(s)	A37 (2013–present)
Former route number	State Route 123 (1974–2013)
Major junctions
Bennetts Green – New Lambton Heights (7.6 km)
South end	Pacific Highway Bennetts Green
	Warners Bay Road Hillsborough Road Myall Road Carnley Avenue Cardiff Road
North end	McCaffrey Drive New Lambton Heights
Jesmond – Sandgate (4.9 km)
South end	Newcastle Road Jesmond
	University Drive Sandgate Road
North end	Pacific Highway Sandgate
Location(s)
Region	Hunter
Major suburbs	Windale, Mount Hutton, Hillsborough, Kotara, New Lambton Heights, Jesmond, Birmingham Gardens, Shortland
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in New South Wales

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The road is divided into five sections.^[2] The first, and southernmost, section is the West Charlestown Bypass, a 6.5-kilometre-long (4.0 mi) freeway standard road, which commences at the intersection with Pacific Highway at Bennetts Green and heads in a northerly direction. The second section leads up the ridge and consists of parts of Charlestown Road and Lookout Road as a divided dual-carriageway arterial road. The third section, currently under construction, will be a freeway diverging from Lookout Road near the intersection of McCaffrey Drive, skirting around the west of John Hunter Hospital to join the next section at Newcastle Road.^[3] The fourth section is a freeway-standard bypass of Jesmond from Newcastle Road continuing north, and the fifth section is a freeway extension from the northern end of the Jesmond Bypass to terminate at the intersection with Pacific Highway at Sandgate.

With the third section of the route not yet completed, a more circuitous route through suburban roads remains in use for the gap between the second and fourth sections. From the end of the Charlestown Bypass, it is necessary to follow Lookout Road, which becomes Croudace Street, before turning left onto Newcastle Road. Approximately 1.3 km (0.8 mi) after turning left, the Inner City Bypass is rejoined by turning right at the Jesmond roundabout.

The Newcastle Inner City Bypass route was first planned in the 1950s to connect the Bennetts Green area to Pacific Highway at Sandgate; it was approved in 1957 and subsequently incorporated in the Northumberland County Planning Scheme. The concept of the Newcastle Inner City Bypass emerged from the decision to route the Sydney to Newcastle Freeway west of Lake Macquarie in the mid-1970s: up to that point the freeway was proposed east of Lake Macquarie and involved corridor reservations for high-standard bypasses of Swansea, Belmont and Charlestown. The corridors for Swansea and Belmont have been abandoned, however the corridor from Bennetts Green to Sandgate was maintained by the Department of Main Roads to ultimately provide a bypass of inner Newcastle.^[4]

The passing of the Main Roads Act of 1924^[5] through the Parliament of New South Wales provided for the declaration of Main Roads, roads partially funded by the State government through the Department of Main Roads. State Highway 23 was declared along this road on 31 July 1946, from the intersection with Pacific Highway at Charlestown, along Charlestown Road via Kotara to Jesmond, and then via Birmingham Gardens along Sandgate Road to the intersection of Pacific Highway at Sandgate.^[1] The highway was redeclared along each section of the bypass as they opened.

The passing of the Roads Act of 1993^[6] through the Parliament of New South Wales updated road classifications and the way they could be declared within New South Wales. Under this act, the declaration of Highway 23 runs from the intersection with Pacific Highway at Windale via West Charlestown Bypass, Charlestown and Lookout and Croudace Roads to Newcastle Road at Lambton, then from Newcastle Road at Jesmond to Pacific Highway at Sandgate.^[7] Despite its classification as a Highway, it still has no officially gazetted name, and is known only locally as Newcastle Inner City Bypass.

Newcastle Inner City Bypass was signed State Route 123 along its entire length in 1974, moving to new sections of the bypass as they opened. With the conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in 2013, this was replaced with route A37.^[8]

• Highways in Australia
• List of freeways in Australia
• List of highways in New South Wales