TWO crashes in a short stretch of the Great Western Highway within an hour-and-a-half of each other have been highlighted as part of the continuing push to have the road upgraded.
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A car crash at 10.45am at Evans Lookout Road at Blackheath on Sunday, March 17 affected traffic in both directions and it was followed not long after by a two-car crash near Jenolan Caves Road at Hartley that also affected traffic in both directions.
In the second incident, the road was affected for almost two hours.
A mid-2021 scoping report for the then-proposed upgrade of the Great Western Highway between Blackheath and Little Hartley described that section as "vulnerable to closure" and said "contraflow measures cannot be established due to the single lane alignment, resulting in major delays in the event of an incident".
Blackheath, a regular trouble spot on the highway, had two incidents within 24 hours in December last year, including one that closed both lanes of the highway.
State Member for Bahurst Paul Toole - who was associated closely with the proposed highway duplication from Katoomba to Lithgow when the NSW Coalition was in government and has been highly critical of Labor for withdrawing funding from the project - highlighted both of Sunday's incidents on his Facebook page.
"Here we go again," he said after the first incident.
"Another one for the day," he said after the second.
Duplications of small sections of the highway at Little Hartley and Medlow Bath are going ahead under the Minns state government.
