YESTERDAY’S big chill across the Bathurst region produced significant snow falls, which everyone loves, but the downside was that it did cause a lot of problems on the local highways.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The significant road closure was on the Great Western Highway at Yetholme, where police put a stop to traffic travelling in both directions.
Motorists had to be patient and wait until the ice thawed out around mid-morning before being allowed to continue on their way.
The highway was also closed between Katoomba and Wentworth Falls due to heavy snow falls and black ice.
Though no one can control nature, such road closures reinforce again how quickly Bathurst can be cut off when there are problems on the Great Western Highway.
The highway is a strange mixture: a four-lane affair in parts and a two-lane country road in others, where it takes only a small problem to cause significant delays.
As this newspaper has argued before, Sydney needs an artery to its west to match the freeways that travel north and south.
The Great Western Highway over the Blue Mountains has endured years of roadworks, but remains a succession of traffic lights.
Bells Line, the other road over the Blue Mountains, is little more than a goat track.
The Great Western Highway west of Lithgow, meanwhile, is a patchwork that, at times, isn’t worthy of its name.
Governments can’t control snow, but they can control the quality of the roads we travel.