JIM Grives’ letter (“Think big on a new river bridge and city bypass”, October 11) about future infrastructure for Bathurst reflects my correspondence earlier this month.
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The council and current councillors need to be incorporating much-needed future planning into current thinking.
Most of the traffic along Durham and Stewart streets is 'through' traffic, going further west or from western locations to Sydney. It will not be too long before these streets become parking lots at peak times of the day.
A few traffic lights so as to facilitate cross-traffic flow will not solve the future emerging problem. I doubt that the 1906-07 easement for traffic is still available.
This is why I suggested a tunnel as the logical alternative as it would not require the cost of resuming property and would cause the least disruption to existing residents and commercial activities.
The projected population growth of Bathurst (60,000 in 20 years) requires action now, not in 10 or 20 years.
As Jim states, it is already too late for the expansion of Kelso and associated traffic to be accommodated with the current low level bridge over the Macquarie River.
Council must get ahead of the game, not react at some later time when the problem has emerged.
Appropriate infrastructure needs to be in place prior to the release of new housing estates.