Mr Baird visited Rankin Park yesterday to join Hunter Liberal MPs in outlining the $280million commitment to the project he said was a ‘‘no brainer’’ to fund and a ‘‘congestion buster’’ that would ‘‘transform’’ the  city commute.

As the Newcastle Herald reported, $150million will be included in next week’s budget to get the Rankin Park to Jesmond stage going.

It will use more of the proceeds from the lease of the Port of Newcastle, on top of $340million for light rail, and will be followed later with money from the roads budget.

It will complete the overall bypass from Bennetts Green to Sandgate that was planned since the 1950s.

‘‘The 50-year wait was too long but today is the day that that wait is over,’’ Mr Baird said.

Detailed designs and an environmental assessment still need to be done for the 3.4kilometre dual-carriageway, prompting estimates that work would start in 2017.

But Mr Baird said that was a ‘‘conservative timetable’’ and he would be pushing RMS to start construction ‘‘as soon as you possibly can’’.

He also favoured the inclusion of a connection to the rear of the John Hunter Hospital, which the $280million should stretch to.

‘‘It would provide a huge benefit, it is a big employer right here so that is something that as that planning work is done will be worked out,’’ Mr Baird said.

Charlestown MP Andrew Cornwell said it would remove ‘‘one of the last great bottlenecks that Hunter commuters have had to put up with for over 50 years’’.

The port lease, which raised a net amount of $1.5billion, made it possible to fund the project now, Mr Baird said, making a sales pitch for his 2015 election policy to sell the state’s poles and wires to raise a further $20billion for infrastructure.

‘‘When you recycle assets you get to deliver projects that communities have been waiting for for 50 years,’’ he said.

NRMA Hunter director Kyle Loades said it was exciting news for motorists, who were used to gridlock near the hospital.

The NRMA would be pushing for the hospital connection to go ahead for more than  ambulances, and for work to start before 2017.

Wallsend Labor MP Sonia Hornery also welcomed the project, which she said she had repeatedly spoken out about publicly while Hunter Liberal MPs stayed silent.

‘‘Despite the political games that this government continues to play, I will continue to work hard and fight for the Wallsend electorate and for the Hunter.’’