Business expansion will lead to 140 extra trucks on Sheraton Road

Regional Hardrock, a subsidiary of Maas Group Properties, has submitted a development application to Dubbo Regional Council to increase its production rate from 30,000 tonnes per annum, to 250,000 tonnes.

The application also seeks to extend the hours so it can be operational 24 hours a day from Monday at 4am until Saturday at 5pm. If approved, the trucks would be permitted to travel between 4am and 10pm on weekdays and 4am to 6pm on Saturday.

"The proposed increase in production, which will supply concrete products to the Inland Rail project, as well as satisfy growing local demand for concrete and concrete products, would generate negligible additional environmental impacts relative to the current approved operations," the application states.

It says the trucks would "largely avoid the Sheraton Road school zone".

As part of the proposed increase in production, the council is pushing for a planning agreement with Regional Hardrock.

It would require the proponent to pay 10 cents per tonne of concrete transport offsite in excess of 30,000 tonnes per annum.

The council estimates it will equate to about $22,000 per year.

The money from the planning agreement will be used for the heavy patching and road rehabilitation of Sheraton Road.

"The documentation submitted with the development application has estimated the proposed development will result in an additional 146 heavy vehicle movements per day along the primary haulage route," the council report states.

"As such, the demand on council's road network and maintenance requirements will significantly increase and will be ongoing for the life of the development while utilising this route."

The concrete works takes raw materials from the South Keswick Quarry and other suppliers and turns it into wet mix concrete that can be used to manufacture pre-cast concrete products or it can be dispatched as batched concrete.

Councillor Josh Black has already expressed concerns about the increase in truck movements on Sheraton Road.

At the recent council committee meetings, he pushed for the development application for the increased production at the concrete works to be determined by the councillors, rather than the council staff.

Cr Black said he was concerned about the increased number of trucks in an area where there's going to be "a whole stack of houses" in the coming years.

The council has plans to build a link road through Blueridge. It's budgeted for the next financial year and is expected to be completed by April 2026.

When that road is constructed, the trucks will be taken off Sheraton Road.

But for now, Cr Black said "based on potential community concern further down the track that it would be good to have that [development application] determined by councillors rather than just by delegated authority to the staff as it's a fairly significant increase in truck traffic".

The development application states the increased concrete works production will provide "significant economic benefits" to the local region, equating to $1.7 million annually.