Dubbo residents are concerned the newly announced third bridge for Dubbo will do little to ease congestion at the busy Whylandra and Victoria Street intersection.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There has been mixed reaction to the announcement by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian that River Street will be the location of Dubbo’s future bridge.
On Friday Ms Berejiklian and Dubbo MP Troy Grant announced $140 million had been made available to construct the bridge and a new road from the Newell Highway to River Street, as well as creating an intersection on Thompson Street.
Roads and Maritime Services also confirmed the roundabout at Whylandra and Victoria streets would be converted to a “fully signalled intersection” as part of the work.
However several people on the Daily Liberal Facebook page expressed their concerns the location of the new bridge would do nothing to reduce the amount of traffic using the already congested intersection.
“Wrong side of town.. the Whylandra/Victoria street intersection will still be overloaded,” Jason Wheatland said.
“Exactly, that is the problem. This is not going to help peak flow from west Dubbo into Dubbo in the mornings and afternoons. Freight traffic is not the issue,” Olivia Rambaldini agreed.
Others were concerned the new bridge would only get used when flooding cut off the Emile Serisier Bridge, because it was too far out of the way to be useful for motorists on a daily basis.
RMS executive director of freight services Roy Wakelin-King said improving the flow of the Whylandra-Victoria intersection was a high priority.
“The intersection is a major part of the project. We have to get that right to ensure the traffic flows efficiently,” he said.
“At the moment it does build up in peak [times] and as we’ve seen in the 2010 floods, there was quite a degree of congestion around there.
“We will see a fully signalised intersection there with enhanced capacity to ensure the movement between those two highways is achieved and that will be a major feature of this project.”
Asked about the potential for the bridge to form part of a ring road in the future, Mr Wakelin-King said the focus of the RMS was “dealing with the immediate needs”, getting freight moving in the region and dealing with flood mitigation.
