The long‑anticipated Singleton Bypass is expected to be completed in the later part of 2026, with the NSW and Federal Labor governments saying the project is progressing well despite weather‑dependent milestones. Once open, the new route is expected to remove around 15,000 vehicles a day from Singleton’s town centre, significantly easing congestion for commuters across the Hunter and Upper Hunter.
Construction on all six bridges along the alignment is nearing completion, including the largest structure on the route — a 1.6‑kilometre bridge spanning the Hunter floodplain. The government says the project will provide major economic and safety benefits for the region.
“It’s really important that we invest in this area,” said Jenny Aitchison, Minister for Roads.
“Singleton and the Upper Hunter are key areas for economic growth in our state.
“We’ve got agricultural industries as well as renewables going through and of course mining and manufacturing.”
Attention is now shifting to the next stage of the New England Highway corridor upgrades, with early works underway for the Muswellbrook Bypass. Surveying and cultural heritage assessments are being carried out, including the recovery of artefacts from the site. The government expects to award the construction contract in early 2027, though Minister Aitchison says they are working to bring timelines forward where possible.
The minister says sequencing major infrastructure projects is helping avoid delays and cost overruns. She says previous governments struggled with staffing shortages, material delays and planning bottlenecks, particularly after COVID‑19.
“By sequencing them properly, we can really disrupt that process to take the timelines down even further. So that might be looking at how we do things such as investigations and planning and designing, constructing, putting those processes a bit closer together.
“The former government we found tended to promise a lot of different projects, but then they were tied up in planning red tape sometimes for years.
“What we’ve done is tried to get rid of some of that red tape to go and ask the community what they want to be much quicker in that consultation process while still getting to the nub of what they want.”
The bypass projects form part of a broader $5 billion road upgrade program across the Hunter, aimed at improving travel reliability and supporting growing industries including agriculture, mining, manufacturing and renewables.
