In the past couple of years, we've had announcements about a tunnel under Blackheath, a tunnel under Mount Victoria, one long tunnel under both, a design for the duplication through Medlow Bath and, in the past few days, a "flyover" at the intersection with Coxs River Road at Little Hartley that will separate local and through traffic.

Considering the scale of the overall project from Katoomba to Lithgow, it's no wonder that it's being broken into separate sections: the Medlow Bath upgrade, east upgrade, west upgrade and central upgrade.

And considering the scale of each of those sections (apart from the Medlow Bath upgrade), it's not surprising that we are getting information on components (such as the flyover) as decisions are made in the planning.

The view among some within the government, presumably, would be that you can't have too many announcements about this $4.5 billion project.

Still, it would be interesting to know whether the average person with an interest in this duplication - and there would be quite a few people in the Central West who fall into that category - would have long ago lost track of which section is going to be done first and whether the long tunnel in the Blue Mountains has been confirmed or not.

They might be struggling to remember when the first work is meant to start and when the duplication is proposed to be completed.

The communication about this project to an interested electorate is, of course, of much less importance than the simple matter of making sure the work is done right.

Still, if the NSW and Australian governments are going to spend $4.5b, they're going to want to make sure they're getting bang for their buck from the voters.

And if they're going to bring the people who will be most affected by this work - those who live on or near the highway from Lithgow to Katoomba - along with them, the two governments will need to make sure their information is clear, connected and streamlined.

If this project is a sort of giant puzzle, the NSW Government needs to keep an eye on the big picture as it reveals a piece here and there.

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