A PLAN is one thing, but a costed plan is another.
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That was the reaction from Centroc – which represents the councils of the Central West, including Orange – to the NSW government announcement this week that it wants to duplicate 30 kilometres of the Great Western Highway.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance and Roads Minister Melinda Pavey were in Bathurst on Monday with Member for Bathurst Paul Toole to announce planning would begin next financial year on the duplication of the highway from Katoomba to Forty Bends, near Lithgow, including possible bypasses of Mount Victoria and Blackheath.
If the duplication goes ahead, it will significantly reduce the travel time between Bathurst and Sydney.
Last Friday, the government effectively stepped away from a corridor extending to Kurrajong and it now ends in the Nepean.
- Centroc chair John Medcalf
Centroc chair John Medcalf was cautiously optimistic about the roads announcement.
“On March 26, we jumped for joy after a decade of planning with successive state governments when a corridor from the M7 to Kurrajong went to public consultation looking for a future upgrade along the Bells Line,” he said.
“Last Friday, the government effectively stepped away from a corridor extending to Kurrajong and it now ends in the Nepean.
“This is not a transport solution. This is not planning for the future.”
The new solution from the NSW government, he said, is a 100km/h road from Lithgow to Penrith along the Great Western Highway.
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“While we welcome any improvements to our transport-constrained region, this is a completely different approach and we will need to look very closely at it,” Mr Medcalf said said.
“In our experience, the Great Western Highway serves as an important local road for the ribbon of communities going in and out of school zones in the Blue Mountains.
“We have been working closely with the councils of Penrith, Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury and will continue to do so for the best possible solution.
“We need to be taken seriously as the connection between Central NSW will also help take the pressure off the Sydney Basin.
Centroc, he said, just wants “a real, costed solution and a strategy we can get behind”.
“Infrastructure Australia says this region is slated to be in the top seven in the nation for GRP [gross regional product] in 2031 and we need to be working with all levels of government and industry that recognises our role in the economy,” Mr Medcalf said.
