The A$130m ($93.9m) King Georges Road interchange upgrade in Sydney, Australia, has been completed two months ahead of schedule and is open to traffic.

The upgrade will benefit nearly half of the 100,000 motorists who use the M5 every day, as this interchange that will connect to the existing M5 East and the New M5 twin underground tunnels, which will run for 9km between Kingsgrove and St Peters.

“Tens of thousands of people in south-west Sydney hitting the road this holiday season will start to see the benefits of our historic investments in road infrastructure."

New South Wales roads minister Duncan Gay said: “This vital enabling project for WestConnex, which has helped to create 900 jobs during construction, now has on and off ramps to the M5 widened and extended by 180m, doubling traffic capacity and easing congestion along King Georges Road.

“Tens of thousands of people in south-west Sydney hitting the road this holiday season will start to see the benefits of our historic investments in road infrastructure and there’s plenty more to come.”

Gay further explained that the interchange is the first completed WestConnex project, and would help in building a new motorway network for Sydney.

Running almost parallel to the existing M5 East, the Mew M5 tunnels will more than double traffic capacity along the corridor, and halve the travel time between Beverly Hills and St Peters.

Federal member for Banks David Coleman noted that that the Commonwealth government concessional loan of up to A$2bn ($1.4bn) has ensured that the construction works of the WestConnex New M5 was fast-tracked, and allowed work at King Georges Road Interchange upgrade to also start early.

Coleman said: “While the full benefits of the interchange upgrade will be realised when the New M5 opens to traffic in 2020, motorists usually banked up on a congested King Georges Road will start seeing immediate improvement, with the lengthened on ramps to the M5 reducing queuing and improving the flow of traffic at this notorious bottleneck.”