PLANS for a second roundabout on Hereford Street have moved a step closer to reality, but one councillor is unsure what effect the new infrastructure will have on traffic.
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Bathurst Regional Council will proceed with the necessary land acquisition that will allow the roundabout to be built at the intersection of Hereford Street and Edgells Lane.
The purpose of the roundabout will be to improve access to car parking areas associated with the new sporting fields on the eastern side of Hereford Street.
The proposed roundabout will encroach upon adjacent land, which council needed to acquire and dedicate to the public and public road.
Council will subdivide Lot 4 in DP1074119, Lot 1 in DP1074115, Lots 79, 96, 97 and 98 in DP726976, Lot 2 in DP1076686, Lots F and G in DP374736 and Lot 3 in DP1073258 in order to get the land it needs.
The costs associated with subdividing the land is estimated to be $10,000, which council made provisions for in this year's budget for the works to proceed.
While council can proceed with plans for the roundabout, councillor Warren Aubin, a member of the traffic committee, admits he's "torn" over whether the roundabout will fix or exacerbate existing issues.
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Hereford Street is regularly congested, with traffic increasing as a result of the ongoing residential development in Kelso.
"The positive is ... a lot of cars get out there through the weekends; to have cars stopping and cars coming straight towards them and cars coming up behind them and have to go around them, it's not a bad ploy to have a roundabout put in there," Cr Aubin said.
"On the other hand, is it going to clog traffic up more than what it is now on Hereford Street when there's major events and that happening out there?"
He said "there's more positives to it than negatives", but he still has concerns about what will happen.
"It's done for a safety point of view. It was planned by the engineering staff and you've got to guess they know what they're doing," Cr Aubin said.
"I just hope it doesn't impact on traffic flow on Hereford Street."
Constructing the roundabout is part of a broader multimillion dollar plan to create a premier sporting precinct for rugby league and rugby union.
More than $5.18 million was allocated in the 2021-22 budget to four elements of the project: the construction of a car park, two fields, the roundabout and lighting for the new fields.
Councillors were told on Wednesday night that the roundabout was being designed in a way that allows for a potential widening of Hereford Street in future.
However, Cr Aubin said widening it would be "a waste of money", as the road would still narrow into one lane.
He is continuing to advocate for another river crossing to help cater to traffic from the new subdivisions.
"We're much better looking to build a separate road coming in somewhere else," he said.
"It is on the plans now, there is plans for it. There's a few different varieties of plans ... there are different maps being drawn."
"In saying that, it really needs to be done quite quickly, because the traffic on that road now is fairly busy, but it is only going to get a lot busier when the next lot of estates start happening out there."
