Bathurst Regional Council has used the money to further engage consultants WSP Australia to do a separate study on the intersection of Hereford and Gilmour streets.

The intersection is often blamed for the banked up traffic at peak times.

Council has already engaged WSP to create a design for an upgrade of Hereford Street, but a further $250,000 was allocated in the 2021-22 budget to create a detailed design for the Hereford-Gilmour intersection specifically.

"Council engaged WSP in 2021 to undertake concept planning and feasibility assessments for the Hereford Street corridor. This scope of work was finalised, and the recommended outcomes reported to council with a cost estimate for the proposed actions identified as around $25 million, including approximately $5 million for the upgrade of the Hereford-Gilmour intersection," director of Engineering Services Darren Sturgiss said.

"As there are numerous contingencies to be identified in the upgrade of the Hereford-Gilmour intersection, council's engineering department have engaged WSP to undertake further modelling of the Hereford-Gilmour intersection so that all options are tested to determine the impact on traffic, adjoining properties and utilities.

"Once the most appropriate option has been identified and the concept verified, council will commence stakeholder consultation as required. Subject to stakeholder feedback, a consultant will be appointed to undertake detailed design by the end of 2022, with this expected to be completed by mid 2023."

Hereford Street has been a thorn in the side for Kelso residents for years and some of Bathurst's newest councillors say this $250,000 spend shows they are taking the issue seriously.

Deputy mayor Ben Fry said the intersection was the "critical end" of Hereford Street and had to be addressed.

"This issue of the roundabout at Gilmour-Hereford comes up every morning at 8.40am and every afternoon at probably 3.30pm and 5pm, and it is a pain point in the connection to the city," he said.

"As per Cr [Andrew] Smith's and my election promises, we wanted real action on our infrastructure backlog in Bathurst, so we do have $250,000 put towards the design for this particular intersection to start and we have commissioned that design."

The previous report from WSP suggested the signalisation of the Hereford and Gilmour Street intersection and associated widening of Gilmour Street.

Cr Fry and Cr Smith aren't sure what actions would be proposed in the new study, but they anticipate widening of the entry points into the intersection will be on the cards.

Whatever the outcome, they know it won't be an easy or quick fix.

"You've got electricity lines, you've got a slight misalignment with the actual roads themselves, hence this design of this roundabout, you've got Trinity Heights shops, you've got landholders around here - it's going to be a complex design process," Cr Fry said.

"We literally started last week, so those designers and those consultants will start to assess with all stakeholders in mind, which is really exciting I think.

"The people of Bathurst wanted to see some kind of progression on this."

Although the $250,000 will generate a design, there is no money allocated for construction works on this intersection or the broader Hereford Street upgrade project.

Councillors at this stage don't know for certain where they'll get they money from.

"That's the million-dollar question. It'd be nice to sort of have someone just hand out some cash, but the focus now is just purely on getting the design," Cr Smith said.

"... I don't have the magic ball to say how we're going to get funding. I think that's going to definitely be the hardest part of it all, but let's get the design right first, identify the pain point that we have and ideally go from there to get a solution that we can turn around reasonably quickly."

Cr Fry is hoping that a higher level of government will come on board.

That would likely have to be the federal government, as deputy premier Paul Toole has been unwavering in his position that the NSW Government won't be footing the bill.

"Given that it's such an arterial link between two sides of a quickly growing city, to me it speaks of a big legacy infrastructure piece, so we'd love to partner with someone like the federal government in terms of this project," Cr Fry said.

"Obviously, we'll make representations once we know what it costs. We'll be able to take a design to the relevant local member and try to get some money for the city of Bathurst to be able to grow sustainably."

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