A TELSTRA technician is making a special trip from Sydney to Bathurst this afternoon to fix the phasing on faulty traffic lights at one of the city's busiest intersections.
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Motorists have been frustrated by the poor phasing on the lights at the intersection of George and Durham streets for at least two weeks, and the Western Advocate has been told reports have been made to the NSW Traffic Management Centre as far back as April 8.
The problem was even worse than usual around lunchtime today when westbound highway traffic was reportedly banked back for at least two CBD blocks and past Bentinck Street on the eastern entrance to Bathurst.
The location of the faulty lights
But when the Advocate made its own inquiries to the TMC we were told the fault had been reported about 1.30pm today and that the operation to fix the fault was well under way.
"We have had an issue with that traffic signal and, unfortunately, it is not something that is easily fixed by Telstra," a spokesperson for the TMC said.
"It will need a special technician who is driving from Sydney to fix that issue."
It's not the first time motorists have experienced problems with those lights.
Last March, Councillor Warren Aubin went public with his frustrations after it took more than four weeks to fix a fault at the same intersection.
He said Telstra had been dragging its heels again to fix the problem.
"I drive through that intersection more than 10 times a day and there's always a problem," he said.
"There's no pattern to the phasing. The lights are changing whenever they want so there's no clearance along the highway."
Cr Aubin said he had received plenty of complaints from motorists about the intersection.
"They think it's council's issue but it's nothing to do with the council," he said.
"Telstra just has to get in and fix it."
The spokesman for the TMC said it was hoped the technical issue would be resolved by 6.30pm Friday.
