IN Bathurst, a public forum has been announced for the end of the month where residents will be able to have their say about a potential future bypass of the city.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In Orange, meanwhile, three tiers of government came together this week to turn the first sod on the $14.7 million next stage of that city's Southern Feeder Road, a multi-year project that aims to replicate the benefits of Orange's decade-old Northern Distributor.
Stage four of the Southern Feeder, which will extend it by about 1.7 kilometres west from Anson Street to Shiralee Road, is expected to be completed in 12 months, weather-permitting.
Orange mayor Jason Hamling said it was significant that all three tiers of government had contributed funding to the project.
"This is the next part of the puzzle and I have to commend former councils and councillors for the hard work they did to get us to this stage," he said.
Representing the new NSW Labor government at the sod-turning for stage four was Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Jenny Aitchison, who was in Bathurst in mid-March to talk roads in the lead-up to the state election.
Member for Calare Andrew Gee said there was a lot to like about the next stage of the Southern Feeder.
"This is a landmark day for Orange and also for this project," he said.
He said it was "a huge engineering project", but vital to the future of Orange.
"It looks to the future and sets Orange up for future growth, eases congestion and makes local roads safer by getting [traffic] off those smaller roads."
The $7.5 million, two-kilometre-long stage three of Orange's Southern Feeder Road, which linked it to the Mitchell Highway, opened in December 2021.
Orange's Northern Distributor bypass, meanwhile, opened in 2013 and was recently reclassed from a local road to a state road, meaning Transport for NSW has now taken control of it.
Bathurst Regional Council resolved in April last year to apply to Infrastructure Australia 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.
Bathurst Regional Council has now engaged consultants Egis Oceania - a firm with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - to "investigate the economic and social benefits of a future city bypass or distributor road network for the city of Bathurst".
And further west
IN Parkes, the first sod was turned in late 2021 on a $187 million bypass that will take Newell Highway traffic around the town.
It will run west of Parkes, will be about 10.5 kilometres long and will be one lane in each direction.
Transport for NSW says the Parkes bypass will remove up to 1200 trucks per day from local streets and improve safety for motorists.
