IT should come as no surprise to anyone that a new campaign pushing for a 100km/h speed limit for drivers all the way through the Blue Mountains has won the support of a coalition of Central West mayors.
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They have backed a petition calling for a "safe, swift link" through the Mountains that has been organised by The Western Link, an initiative led by a group of small businesses that support "a quicker, safer and more reliable route from the Central West to Western Sydney".
Cabonne mayor Kevin Beatty was happy to speak for his Central West colleagues, saying that "realistically, you're talking about dual carriageway through the Blue Mountains, or a tunnel" to make the 100km/h speed limit possible.
Sound familiar?
The angst over the many speed changes through the Mountains (not to mention the level of distraction for drivers who have to constantly keep one eye on speed signs rather than two eyes on the roads) is nothing new and plenty of people have echoed Cr Beatty's frustration.
Perhaps the most significant, though, was Bathurst MP Paul Toole when he was announced as the state's new Regional Roads Minister in April last year.
Even before he was sworn into the job Mr Toole told the Western Advocate that the road through the Blue Mountains would be one of his focus areas.
"What I want is a safe and fast road from Lithgow to Penrith where you can travel at 100km/h because one of the real frustrations at the moment are all the speed limit changes," Mr Toole said.
"When you get to towns like Blackheath, though, you really can't go around so the only way is to go under so we want to start looking at costings for tunnels in the next four years.
"It's a big job but, who knows, if the feds come on board and give us some real money then maybe we can expedite it even faster than that."
With those words have come some action, and already there are plans for a tunnel under Blackheath to ease some congestion. From there, who knows?
Fixing the trip between Bathurst and Sydney will a big job, a time-consuming job and a costly job, but it's one we must keep pursuing.
Bathurst's future prosperity, and the future prosperity of the whole Central West region, is depending on it.
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