Ex-Sydneysider STUART PEARSON looks at Bathurst and its future from the perspective of a new resident.
BATHURST is a major hub for road transport through the Central West of NSW.
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Thousands of heavy vehicles rumble through Bathurst every day, delivering goods, produce and supplies along the major transport routes of the Great Western Highway, Mitchell Highway and the Mid-Western Highway.
To be clear: a heavy vehicle is defined as a truck, lorry, bus, tanker, semi-trailer or B-double.
Heavy transport is a two-edged sword. Without it, the whole economy suffers, but with it, the centre of Bathurst suffers.
This is because at the moment heavy vehicles can only drive through the middle of the city to get to other destinations, not around it.
OTHER RECENT COLUMNS:
On their way through Bathurst, these heavy vehicles pass alongside schools, residences, retail shops, playgrounds, recreational and tourist areas.
Everyone is affected by the noise, potential danger and pollution of these behemoths.
In 2008, Bathurst Regional Council was so concerned about the growing number of heavy vehicles rolling through its city that it commissioned a major traffic report from respected engineers Parsons Brinckerhoff Australia to come up with an alternative route around the city.
Parsons Brinckerhoff obliged by proposing a southern bypass for heavy vehicles that started at Raglan. Its report of 2008 showed that, on average, 1274 heavy vehicles a day passed through Bathurst.
Since then, our council has approached the federal and NSW governments for help with funding the construction of this bypass, but for many years, council's advocacy fell on deaf ears.
In 2017, however, there was a breakthrough of sorts, in that the NSW Government finally recognised the value of such a project and included the Bathurst southern bypass on its strategic plan for the Central West and Orana regions.
In the meantime, Orange went ahead with the construction of a northern heavy vehicle bypass and has since successfully lobbied the Federal Government to partially fund a second bypass, this time on the southern side of the city.
Dubbo has secured $195 million from the NSW Government for several major road improvements, including preliminary work on a Northern Freight Ring Road.
Finally, Parkes will start construction on the Newell Highway bypass around the city in early 2020.
From an average of 1274 trucks per day in 2008, the current figures produced by NSW Roads and Maritime Services reveal an average of 1820 heavy vehicles a day now rumble through Bathurst - up 43 per cent in just over a decade.
If presented as an annual figure, there are more than 664,000 trucks a year travelling through the heart of Bathurst - shocking and dangerous in the extreme.
This year, we've already had over half a dozen serious motor vehicle collisions involving heavy vehicles.
A logging truck overturned at the Oberon roundabout in July, causing massive delays to traffic. No-one was seriously hurt, but imagine what an avalanche of 30 tonnes of timber logs would have done to cars and people if they had been next to it.
It's crazy that Bathurst has to wait while cities that are smaller and further away from Sydney receive government funding before Bathurst.
Most of the trucks travelling to Orange and Dubbo travel through Bathurst first, but as the situation stands, this wonderful city will be the last to have a much-needed bypass.
No more serious motor vehicle collisions. Bathurst deserves a southern heavy vehicle bypass now.
