Prospect Highway

Prospect Highway is an 11.1 km secondary urban road linking Baulkham Hills and Pemulwuy in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The highway provides a free alternative link from the tolled M2 Hills and the Westlink M7 motorways in the northeast to the M4 Western Motorway in the southwest and further south. This name covers a few consecutive roads and is widely known to most drivers, but the entire allocation is also known – and signposted – by the names of its constituent parts: Abbott Road, Seven Hills Road, Wall Park Avenue, Blacktown Road and Prospect Highway proper.

Route
The highway takes its name from the suburb Prospect; like many highways in the Sydney area, it was formed by linking a series of local roads.

Prospect Highway starts at the intersection of Old Windsor Road and the eastbound ramps to M2 Hills Motorway as Abbotts Road and heads in a westerly direction as a four-lane, dual-carriageway road, where after a short distance it widens to a six-lane road and intersects with and changes name to Seven Hills Road, before reaching the intersection with Station Road and Johnson Avenue nearly immediately afterwards, where it changes name again to Prospect Highway. It narrows back to a four-lane road once it crosses the Main Western railway line, until it meets Seven Hills Road South, where it narrows to a single-carriageway road and heads west, changing name again to Wall Park Avenue. It widens again to a dual-carriageway road just before it intersects with and changes name to Blacktown Road, heading south and narrowing to a dual-lane, single carriageway road south of the intersection with Bungarribee Road. Blacktown Road splits off southeast after a short distance: the name changes again back to Prospect Highway and continues south through Prospect until it crosses over both Great Western Highway and M4 Western Motorway, continuing south until it eventually terminates at the intersection with the Liverpool–Parramatta Transitway in Pemulwuy; the road continues southwards as Widemere Road.

History
The passing of the Main Roads Act of 1924 through the Parliament of New South Wales provided for the declaration of Main Roads, roads partially funded by the State government through the Main Roads Board (later the Department of Main Roads, and eventually Transport for NSW). With the subsequent passing of the Main Roads (Amendment) Act of 1929 to provide for additional declarations of State Highways and Trunk Roads, the Department of Main Roads (having succeeded the MRB in 1932) declared Main Road 644 along Prospect Highway, from the intersection with Old Windsor Road in Seven Hills, along Abbott and Seven Hills Roads, Wall Park Avenue, Blacktown Road and Church Lane to the interchange with M4 Western Motorway in Prospect, on 26 August 1988.

Church Lane, from Great Western Highway to Blacktown Road through Prospect, was officially renamed Prospect Highway on 5 April 1991. Later, the section of Seven Hills Road, between the intersection with Station Road and Johnson Avenue, and the intersection with Wall Park Avenue in Seven Hills, was also officially renamed Prospect Highway on 27 November 1992.

The passing of the Roads Act of 1993 updated road classifications and the way they could be declared within New South Wales. Under this act, Prospect Highway retains its declaration as Main Road 644.

The route was allocated State Route 63 in 1992, between Blacktown and Prospect, but was removed a few years later in 1998. The entire route is currently unallocated.

Proposals
In 2015, the NSW Government Roads & Maritime Services commenced planning an upgrade of a 3.6 km section of the highway between Reservoir Road in Prospect to St Martins Crescent in Blacktown.