Communities in Western NSW should be ready to lobby the state and federal governments for funding for a Bells Line Expressway at the end of the decade, Calare MP Andrew Gee has said.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Gee said he believes once work is completed on the Pacific Highway in 2019-20, the expressway over the Blue Mountains should become the first priority for governments.
Roads Minister Darren Chester drove the Bells Line with the local MP last week and Mr Gee said it was important for MR Chester to see firsthand what the road was like.
As well as looking at the upgrade work that had already taken place, Mr Gee said the trip was an opportunity to show Mr Chester that more needed to be done.
“The only reason we have seen improvements on Bells Line in the last few years is because communities of the west and local representatives have been fighting very hard for it,” Mr Gee said.
“There’s more that can be done and I’m what I’m interested in in the short term is to get funding to keep those important improvements going.
“In the longer term the communities in the west really want a Bells Line Expressway.”
Western Region Institute chairman Mark Burdack said an expressway would be an important way of boosting Western NSW.
“By its very nature the Great Dividing Range is a divider between Sydney and Western NSW,” Mr Burdack said.
If you look at Victoria, without that geographic barrier it has good rail links and road links to regional areas and the economic growth of those regions outstrips Western NSW.
“That’s why we have to look at how to overcome that barrier.”
Mr Burdack said it would be up to governments to decide if the expressway was the most effective way of relieving population pressure and rising land prices in Sydney.
“Most people in Western NSW would see it as an important investment but the NSW government has to look and see if it is the best investment,” he said.
Mr Chester was pleased to see the improvements that had already taken place but said there was “no question more work is required” and it was up to the NSW and federal governments “to work together to provide some of those upgrades”.
Mr Chester said $50 million was already being spent on the Bells Line but declined to say whether there would be more money in the 2017-18 budget.
