NSW Government confirms deferral of $340m upgrade of Mona Vale Rd West
It’s been talked about for years, upgrading a section of a northern beaches road notorious for its prang and traffic snarls. But now work on the route has been put on the backburner.
Manly
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Work to fix a notoriously “slow and congested” northern beaches traffic black spot has officially been put on the backburner for at least two years.
The NSW Government has confirmed it has deferred starting work on the $340 million upgrade of Mona Vale Rd, between Terrey Hills and Ingleside.
But Transport for NSW said it will be constructed in the future and that a final business case for the upgrade has already been developed.
The deferral became apparent after only $348,000 was allocated to the project in the Labor Govenrment’s first state budget, released this week
Money for the 3.4km “Mona Vale Road (West)” had been set aside for the next four years in last year’s budget drawn up by the previous Coalition Government.
A promotional video released in 2017 by NSW Roads and Maritime Services, spruiked that it was planning to upgrade Mona Vale Rd from two to four lanes between Terrey Hills and Mona Vale.
“The road is currently steep and narrow and with up to 37,000 vehicles using the road each day, it can be slow and congested,” according to the video soundtrack.
The previous government did start work on an adjoining upgrade project — Mona Vale Rd (East) from Ingleside to Mona Vale — with most of the major work to be completed by December.
But there had been concerns that Mona Vale Road (West) would be dumped by the new Labor Government.
In August the Manly Daily reported that it was being scrutinised as part of an examination of government spending on major infrastructure works.
The upgrade of the whole route was prompted by a horror crash involving a runaway petrol tanker that exploded in flames in 2013, killing two men.
Liberal Pittwater MP Rory Amon, who has been lobbying for the work on the new upgrade to begin, said its capital funding had been “wiped” from the budget.
“This will put lives at risk,” Mr Aamon said.
A residents’ group, the Terrey Hills Progress Association, backed Mr Amon’s push for the upgrade to go ahead.
Association president Paul Davenport said if the western end of Mona Vale Rd was not improved, locals would be caught up in even worse bottlenecks as traffic left the improved eastern section of the route, back onto one lane each way.
“These bottlenecks are just going to increase and increase,” Mr Davenport said.
Transport for NSW said on Friday that Mona Vale Road (West) project had been deferred by the NSW Government for two years.
“Transport for NSW has developed a final business case for this project which will reduce the lead time to go to market and get the project into construction in future,” a spokesman said.
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