The Northern Distributor Road should close for up to a week to send a protest message to the State Government to convince it to take ownership of the bypass.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That’s the view of Orange City Council infrastructure policy committee chair Cr Glenn Taylor.
This week Cr Taylor urged council to consider the radical measure to convince the State Government to take ownership of the contentious bypass.
It would mean that trucks would have to return to travelling through the middle of the city during the closure.
“I believe we should close the distributor, or parts of it, for a week at a time,” he said.
“I think it is the only way we can ram home the situation.
“That Northern Distributor is a pseudo highway.”
HAVE YOUR SAY ...
Council built the road, but traffic had increased substantially since it opened in 2012.
It is also in need of significant repair and maintenance work.
Cr Taylor said there were now 10,000 traffic movements a day, of which 2500-3000 were large vehicles.
However, the previous NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay last month refused to reclassify the bypass as a state road.
“The council built the Northern Distributor Road and continues to claim it requires major repairs.
“I suggest they get on with it.”
Mr Gay has been replaced by Melinda Pavey as the Roads Minister.
"I think it is the only way we can ram home the situation."
- Cr Glenn Taylor, Orange City Council
Cr Taylor said council should organise a meeting with the new minister and present her with traffic figures to push the case.
He said that if that was unsuccessful council should consider short-term closures of the bypass.
Cr Scott Munro said Orange people would suffer from the measure as trucks and heavy traffic would return to Summer Street.
Member for Orange Phil Donato has vowed to fight to ensure the road is properly funded.
“I’d like to see someone take ownership of it and do something with it,” he said.
“Whether it’s the local council, state government or federal government. If someone doesn’t I certainly will.”
The latest traffic counting figures taken by Orange City Council show that 10,291 vehicles a day or 72,039 vehicles a week travel on the Northern Distributor Road between Hill Street and William Maker Drive.
TRUCKS, TRUCKS, SO MANY TRUCKS ...
Of those 509 a day were heavy transport vehicles.
The busiest times of the day are between 3pm and 6pm, followed by 8am-9am.
Our online poll on the proposal has so far shown that people are not in favour of the protest closure.
As of Thursday afternoon around two-thirds of respondents on the question, ‘Would you support Orange City Council if they closed the Northern Distributor Road for a week’, said no.