Council continues investigations into Bathurst bypass, plans to engage specialist firm

The idea of a Bathurst bypass has been raised and investigated before, but never progressed after the release of a 2009 study.

However, recent lobbying by Bathurst resident Lorraine Sargeant has brought the Bathurst bypass back into the spotlight.

In April 2022, council resolved to apply to Infrastructure Australia (IA) for the Bathurst Bypass to be "a new national priority list item" and, when council released its budget for the 2022-23 financial year, it included a $100,000 allocation for a study into the bypass project.

Now, council staff, as per a request from councillor Jess Jennings, have provided an update on the project.

In his report, director of Environmental, Planning and Building Services Neil Southorn confirmed that work has commenced on the further investigation into a bypass for Bathurst.

He also said that council would be appointing a specialist firm to quantify the issue as a first step this financial year.

He confirmed that there have been discussions with IA since the April resolution.

"Council staff have discussed this project with IA officers and have been advised that councils can nominate projects and a bypass is an eligible type of project, and encouraged further discussions with council on the regional scale of the project," Mr Southorn said.

"IA have also advised that the first stage of the three stage process required to succeed with nomination as a national infrastructure project does not need the bypass route to be determined, rather, there is the building of a case that quantifies the scale of the problem before identifying specific solutions.

"The project must realise at least $30 million per annum benefit to the nation."

He said the first step to quantify the problem is to identify what outcomes are to be achieved, with his report suggesting the following four outcomes:

Mr Southorn recommended that this be the subject of investigation for the remainder of the financial year.

"To that end, council has requested quotations and a reverse brief from four firms who specialise in infrastructure project assessment with IA," he said.

Council staff are also compiling a list of stakeholders, particularly from the freight and logistics industry, who might support the project and be used as data sources.

The report was discussed at the December 14 council meeting.

Cr Jennings noted that no route has been selected at this time, pointing to the strong advise from IA that preliminary work is needed before route selection is undertaken.

"No route has been decided. It is very easy for people to walk away with the wrong impression perhaps that there may be a predetermined route, and there isn't and there won't be for some time," he said.

More investigation will need to be done, with Mr Southorn estimating at the meeting that it could take six months to compile a report to submit to IA.

The 2009 report by Parsons Brinkerhof explored the potential of a four-lane southern link road concept and concluded such a route would achieve relief to the CBD.

However, this study did not consider alternative routes, did not progress to a detailed route selection investigation and did not provide a cost estimate for such a project.

The report notes that the notional route has difficulty traversing land near Mt Panorama and is predicated on a new crossing of the Macquarie River that has received no further investigation.

Ten years later, in 2019, consulting firm WSP undertook the Bathurst Traffic and Transport Strategy in conjunction with council and NSW Roads and Maritime Services, being a review of transport options to accommodate future land release.

This study included a modified southern ring route and a northern river crossing route and upgrades to existing corridors and intersections.

The study concluded both options would provide relief, but a whole of network approach was required because these improvements only keep up with predicted population growth.

The concept has featured in council's strategic planning and most recently in council's Local Strategic Planning Statement, together with an indicative route for a northern link road.

"None of those are either ruled in, or indeed ruled out, at this stage," Mr Southorn said.

"The next step is to understand what needs fixing, what are the problems that need solving ... quantify that, and then that starts to narrow down the preferred option or options."

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