There would barely be a user of this road who hasn’t navigated the obstacle course of speed limits, machinery, dust and temporary instructions and wondered how much longer all this is going to take.

The answer: a fair while.

This, remember, is an $85 million spend on a busy section of highway that is not only adding new lanes, but is necessitating – as detailed today – the realignment of part of Boyd Creek.

This is not easy work – and it’s made more difficult by the traffic that passes through the work zone each day.

It’s unsightly, yes, and it must appear at some times as if progress isn’t being made.

But as today’s coverage explains, much has been done – it’s just not all of it can be seen from the windows of passing cars.

Bathurst’s links to Sydney are gradually improving.

Much of the Great Western Highway over the Blue Mountains is now two lanes both ways and the Bells Line of Road is set to get a number of new overtaking lanes.

Time is being whittled off the journey between Bathurst and the biggest city in Australia, section by section of the roads that link them, and as that journey gets quicker, the benefits to Bathurst will flow.

In the meantime, the work at Kelso continues – and it will continue for some time.

But as well as initial excitement and later frustration, there is another inevitability about this major road upgrade: when the project is finished, and the traffic is flowing on the new road, it won’t be long before all the dust, the delays and the diversions are forgotten.

Then, just the benefits will remain.