A marathon, $50 million upgrade of the main road between Orange and Bathurst may have caused frustration among commuters, but a senior Transport for NSW official says the work is imperative to improve a "huge road safety issue" along the Mitchell Highway.
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Regional director west, Alistair Lunn acknowledged the impact roadworks between two of the region's biggest centres has caused but revealed the corridor between Orange and Bathurst, stretching as far as Lithgow, was a real concern for authorities.
He said the road toll from Orange to Lithgow "is particularly high" with head-on crashes and off-road crashes on the Mitchell Highway prevalent enough to warrant extensive upgrades of the road.
Mr Lunn said the seemingly never-ending roadworks between Bathurst and Orange, when complete, would help prevent those crashes.
Speaking before Christmas to mark the opening of the upgrade of the highway from Kelso to Raglan, he said work on that 3.5-kilometre section - which includes new dual lanes - got started just under three years ago, but it followed a long period of planning and lead-up.
Asked if that sort of planning was going on now in regards to future projects on the highway, Mr Lunn said it was.
"We have integrated transport plans that look at planning for this corridor - the Orange to Bathurst to Lithgow and then into Sydney corridor - and looking at where our next priorities are," he said.
"At the moment, we're focusing heavily on - and I know the travelling public have been subjected to a lot of roadworks on this corridor - to a lot of safety works at the moment.
"The road toll on this section, Orange to Lithgow, is particularly high, so we're focusing a lot on safety barriers, more overtaking opportunities to give people an opportunity to move through the traffic at an efficient speed, and obviously this work [the new dual lanes from Kelso to Raglan] is really benefiting that and a gateway to Bathurst.
"And then we'll be looking at how we connect that into the Blue Mountains better."
Happening now
Having been paused early in the year after Labor took power at the state level, small duplications of the highway at Medlow Bath and the Coxs River Road intersection at Little Hartley resumed in late May.
"We're doing the work now at Medlow Bath and at Coxs River Road and they'll be dual carriageway opportunities, separating local and through traffic, and really giving that increased safety benefit," Mr Lunn said.
"And we'll be looking at where we build from there.
"So there certainly will be a lot more investment on this corridor.
"It's a growth corridor - obviously with more people doing a tree-change out into the Central West and this being a vital connection for the Central West.
"At the moment, we're also focusing on getting the Mount Victoria slope failures fixed and restoring that to its old capacity.
"And on the Bells Line of Road, at Mount Tomah, we're fixing some of the slope failures as well there from the major rain events from a year or so ago.
"So, [we're] focusing on recovering the network at the moment and road safety. And then we'll be looking again more at opportunities to increase the efficiency of the road."
And the Mitchell
A $50 million program of safety improvements on the Mitchell Highway between Bathurst and Orange has meant continuing roadworks as crews move from section to section.
"It's a good and bad thing," Mr Lunn said of the disruption on that stretch of road.
"We understand that roadworks really impact the travelling public.
"And we understand as well - I mean, I live in Forbes - that Orange to Bathurst is a key commuter route.
"And for those people doing it regularly, it is hard.
"But, again, we had a huge road safety issue with that section of road, particularly with off-road and head-on crashes, so we are looking at putting more and more wire rope in.
"And the federal and state governments are really committed to reducing the road toll and doing that work does come at a price, unfortunately for the travelling motorist, but when it's done, it will be a safer corridor.
"So we thank them for their patience."
How to decide?
In terms of how Transport for NSW would decide where its next investment on the Great Western Highway should be, Mr Lunn said the organisation would consider a number of factors.
"We look at where we have accidents, where we have resilience issues - so slope failures, bushfires really impact that corridor," he said.
"We also look at where there are congestion points - obviously, Blackheath has congestion and [there's] the flow-on that has around Mount Victoria.
"But also between Medlow Bath and Katoomba, there are sections there where the detour, if a tree falls down or a powerline [falls down] in windy conditions or we have icy conditions or an accident, the detours are quite long.
"So that's how we prioritise."
Mr Lunn assured that the improvements on the Great Western Highway were not finished.
"There'll be more and more work done on this corridor.
"It's a key corridor connecting the Central West.
"It's something that the government understands the importance of and we're certainly not walking away from this.
"There's more to be done.
"And you'll see, in the coming year or so, there's more road safety money, more network efficiency money coming down the pipeline that will be pushed onto this corridor as well as other corridors."
