SOME certainty has been provided around the shutdown of the Great Western Highway with the New South Wales State Government announcing works could take up to 12 months to complete.
The road was shut down in early March with surface cracks at Victoria Pass revealing significant undermining of the road.
Since then, travel to the Central West and beyond has been thrown into limbo as Transport for NSW goes through a process of assessing the damage and appointing contractors to fix the issues.
A statement from the NSW Government said major work was expected to get underway this month, with “the road expected to reopen in the second quarter of next year.”
Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison thanked the community for its ongoing “patience”.
“I want to acknowledge how difficult the past few months have been for families, businesses, freight operators and everyone who relies on this road every day,” she said.
“Thank you for your patience while we worked to find the safest and fastest way forward.
“In 109 days, we have completed thorough geotechnical testing, convened a global industry roundtable, run an accelerated procurement process with leading Australian and international engineering experts, and finalised both the contract and the solution to reopen this road.”
As part of a support package in May, Cabonne Shire was one of eight municipalities given a $15,000 grant to support tourism in the region.
However, Federal Calare MP Andrew Gee said the Commonwealth Government should also step up and provide financial aid to businesses impacted by the highway’s shutdown.
“Our local businesses are being smashed by this closure,” he said. “The NSW Government’s current support package is utterly inadequate; insultingly so.
“Paltry one-off grants will not keep the doors of our struggling businesses open. They will not put food on the table for business owners, their employees, and their families.
“Businesses are closing and dying before our eyes.”
Mr Gee’s comments came after he questioned the Federal Transport Minister Catherine King about the issue during Parliamentary Question Time.
“The closure of the Great Western Highway has had a very substantial impact on not just businesses but also families trying to get their kids to school as well as on freight operators,” Ms King said.
“I’ve been briefed regularly by my New South Wales counterpart, Minister Aitchison in the New South Wales Government, who’s managing the closure and now the delivery of works.
“There is a complex geotechnical failure on that 194-year-old Mitchells Causeway.
“NSW Government has been working to develop an engineering solution and a procurement process in parallel.
“That’s not normally how it works, but they’ve been trying to expedite that as quickly as possible to work out the way forward.
“There’s been a detailed and careful process to do that because we know we can’t take shortcuts with this.
“They’re working their way through if that’s possible at the moment, and they will then have a clearer picture of how much this will cost.
“They will then work with my department on a specific funding request, but I spoke to Minister Aitchison … to signal my support for the Commonwealth assisting in what we know is a very significant piece of infrastructure.”
Mr Gee said a willingness by the Federal and State governments to work together on fixing the road should extend to business and community support.
“The Federal Government now needs to get on with the job and put serious funding on the table,” he said. “We want action.
“I will continue to pile pressure on both the NSW and Federal governments to deliver the support our communities need and deserve.”