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Heavy traffic has begun to ease on major roads in the Hunter and Central Coast after a busy start to Good Friday.
According to Live Traffic NSW, congestion on the M1 Pacific Motorway, New England Highway and Pacific Highway between Minmi and Heatherbrae eased by about lunch time, with expected delays decreasing from 35 minutes earlier in the morning to 15 minutes by 2pm.
However, congestion continued to clog part of the New England Highway at Tarro, approaching Hexham, as well as the M1 near Tuggerah just before 4pm.
Police are handing out double demerit penalties until midnight on Monday as part of the Easter long-weekend crackdown.
As of Friday afternoon, police had conducted more than 52,000 breath tests across the state since Thursday morning.
"People who choose to drive while alcohol-impaired and/or drug-impaired are targets for every highway patrol officer across NSW," highway patrol commander Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy said on Friday.
EARLIER REPORT:
Holiday traffic has been bumper-to-bumper on many major roads across the state on Friday morning, with delays of more than half an hour expected for people travelling through some parts of the Hunter region.
State government service Live Traffic NSW predicted 35 minutes extra travel time would be needed for north-bound motorists travelling along the M1 Pacific Motorway, the Pacific Highway and New England Highway between Minmi and Heatherbrae as of 10am.
A three car crash on the M1 at Somersby, north of Gosford, had north-bound traffic backed up just before 11.30am.
A multi-vehicle crash at Palmdale, near Tuggerah, just after 10.30am also slowed north-bound traffic on the M1, after a 25 minute delay was predicted for motorists between Black Hill and Hexham as of 9am.
An earlier crash involving a car and a semi trailer at Holmesville, near West Wallsend, had one north-bound lane of the M1 closed until about 8am.
Another earlier crash affected north-bound traffic at Nerong, south of Bulahdelah - but the scene was cleared by about 8am.
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