Weather permitting, work will commence at the Orange Health Service intersection on either Tuesday or Wednesday, with the installation of traffic lights at the hospital’s entrance to follow.

The traffic lights will be placed in line with the yet-to-be built private hospital because of the large number of pedestrians expected to be crossing between the two facilities.

There will no parking available at the front of the hospital during and after construction because of the wider road configuration and the installation of kerbs and guttering.

The roadworks will involve widening of the existing road pavement with a hotmix asphalt surface, and when the work is completed the road will have kerb and guttering on both sides, as well as new street lights.

Part of the upgrade will include a 2.5-metre wide cycle path on the eastern side of the road from the traffic lights to the southern end of Sir Jack Brabham Park, which will link with existing paths.

The re-design will also create 120 marked carparks adjacent to Sir Jack Brabham Park.

In the course of the work 38 of the 300 trees along the road next to Sir Jack Brabham Park and the golf course will be removed to allow the road to be widened, a new table drain to be built, and to accommodate the marked carparks.

Forest Road will remain open during construction, but motorists are warned to expect delays.

Access to the hospital will be available via the main entrance, as well as via Huntley Road and the Country Club gates.

The second stage of roadworks will begin in a couple of months and will include the section from the Southern Feeder Road to the TAFE campus. The third section will be from the TAFE campus to the hospital.

In total the upgrade is 1.4-kilometres long, and is expected to take around six months.

This project is partly funded by the the NSW Government’s Restart NSW Resources for Regions program and the Australian Government’s Roads to Recovery program.