Showground Road in Castle Hill is a busy road which also services the popular Castle Towers Shopping Centre. The single carriageway section of Showground Road generally has only two lanes in each direction between Carrington Road and Old Northern Road.

In February 2011, The Hills Shire Council granted development consent to the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) to expand Castle Towers Shopping Centre from its current floor space of 112,000m2 to approximately 173,000m2. This expansion is expected to further increase traffic on Showground Road, as well as put additional pressure on surrounding streets.

RMS has worked closely with Council during 2011 and 2012 in assessing the development application from QIC for the proposed expansion of Castle Towers Shopping Centre. Based on this assessment, RMS identified that the following work would be required on Showground Road to accommodate the expected increase in travel demand:

• Widening of Showground Road to at least four lanes between Carrington Road and Old Northern Road.
• Modifications to the intersection of Showground Road and Old Northern Road.
• Modifications to the intersection of Showground Road and Pennant Street.
• A new set of traffic lights at the intersection of Showground Road, Kentwell Avenue and Cheriton Avenue.
• A new set of traffic lights at the intersection of Showground Road and Rowallan Avenue.
• Bus priority measures at traffic lights.
• Left-in / left-out restrictions at the intersection of Showground Road and Britannia Road.
• Provision of off-road cycle facilities along Showground Road.

What is happening now?

The proposed upgrade work on Showground Road is part of the conditions of the development consent for the proposed expansion of the Castle Towers Shopping Centre. As a result a Voluntary Planning Agreement (VPA) between QIC, RMS, The Hills Shire Council is on display from Monday 20 May for four weeks at The Hills Shire Council's website.

With the VPA agreement due to be finalised shortly, RMS is completing further design for the proposed upgrade during 2013. RMS will write to local residents and businesses again in the second half of 2013 where community comment on the proposed road upgrade will be sought before the project progresses further.

Further information

For further information regarding this project, please contact RMS' project team or check this webpage again soon.

Phone: (02) 8849 2263

Email: ShowgroundRoadUpgrade@rms.nsw.gov.au