THERE’S still a fair bit of pain ahead for motorists – and local retailers – but the light is slowly appearing at the end of the tunnel that is the Great Western Highway upgrade.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The reopening of the Kelso Fruit Market is a small, but encouraging, development in the $85 million project.
The 34-year-old business closed temporarily when heavy equipment used in the road construction work was housed on the site while the nearby bridge was being built.
But that work is now complete and the market is back in business as the construction roadshow rolls on.
Once the upgrade is completed, the highway will have been rebuilt and widened from Stockland Drive to just east of Ashworth Drive to provide a four-lane divided road with a central concrete median.
It should improve traffic flow into and out of Bathurst, particularly over the busy race weekend.
But the upgrade will still be just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the frustrations motorists face trying to get from Sydney to the greater west of the state.
Despite years of talk, the Bells Line Expressway remains a pipe dream and the alternative route – the Great Western Highway – is still one of the most frustrating sections of road in Australia.
The fact that the key link between Sydney and the Central West boasts not a single 100km/h zone between Lithgow and the end of the M4 says it all.
So while we welcome the work at Kelso and look forward to its completion, we’ll be waiting for several decades yet to see the whole highway brought up to the standard the people and businesses of the Central West deserve.
