Forster-Tuncurry Bridge: 34-year old report recommended extra lanes by 2000

A three-decades-old Department of Main Roads report has revealed startling information about a Mid-North Coast bridge where a young man was killed last month.

A 34-year-old government report has exposed the lack of action taken to upgrade a Mid-North Coast bridge where a young man died in a tragic car crash.

By the year 2000, the then-NSW Department of Main Roads recommended the Forster-Tuncurry Bridge, and a suite of other priority road projects across the north coast, be upgraded as part of the department’s strategy to improve the state of the road network at the turn of the century.

The 1987 report, titled ‘Roads 2000 North Coast Region,’ listed the Forster-Tuncurry bridge be duplicated as part of the Government’s then ‘realistic plan for road development by the year 2000.’

DMR Roads 2000 North Coast Region. Pic DMR report 1987

The recommendation to duplicate the bridge over the river between the towns. Pic DMR Report 1987

The then Minister for Roads, Laurie Brereton, penned a foreword in the report that stated the government’s established priorities based on ‘projected population growth, land use and available road funds.’

Projects listed and since completed in the report include bypassing the Mid-North Coast towns of Macksville and Taree and providing a divided highway [Oxley Highway] between Port Macquarie and the Pacific Highway.

But 21 years on from the date it should have been done, there has still been no upgrade to the Forster- Tuncurry Bridge where 23-year-old Jack Yuille was killed.

Mr Yuille, who was the only person in the car at the time, couldn’t be saved.

The drivers of the two other vehicles were transported to hospital, while paramedics treated the two off-duty policemen for smoke inhalation. Investigating officers are now piecing together the circumstances that led to the incident, and why the 23-year-old’s vehicle crossed into oncoming traffic.

The incident closed the bridge for 11 hours throughout the night, with the only other access route between the two towns a 50 minute detour back along the Pacific Highway and through the Lakes Way.

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In NSW parliament on Wednesday, Myall Lakes MP Steven Bromhead said the situation is ‘not good enough.’

“If you look at the history of this, a DMR (Department of Main Roads) in 1987 forecast that we would need further lanes or a duplication of the bridge [by 2000],” he said.

“And that report is correct, it certainly is needed.”

Mr Bromhead said with tourists, in particular due to COVID, the need for a duplication of the bridge or added lanes over the river linking the towns was crucial.

“It can sometimes take up to 40 minutes to get from Tuncurry to Forster and vice versa … and that’s just not good enough.”

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“This call for more lanes across the water, is totally supported by all the first responders and this is very very important the number of times where there has been ambulances caught which have not being able to get across the bridge.

“Recently, this is not the catalyst for it, but recently there was an example of a very tragic accident at one end of the bridge, the Tuncurry end of the bridge, and the closure of the bridge was something like 11 hours while that was investigated.

“That it is heartbreaking for the family involved and I am sorry for them.

“What we need is more lanes so that the first responders are not on one side and not able to get to the other side.

Local businessman Rob Jeffress wants to see a world-class bridge that would be the envy of all other coastal towns up and down the NSW coast built in Forster.

Derived from similar man-made sea structures, such as the Sea Cliff Bridge south of Sydney, he has concocted a bold proposal for a ‘signature statement’ bridge to replace the 62-year-old structure.

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The bridge would encapsulate the ‘natural beauty’ of Forster’s ‘beautiful pristine canvass’ adding a more functional and aesthetic element to the town’s growing appeal as a popular tourism destination.

He said every well-known town and city in the world is reverting to designing man-made landmarks that separate their identity from one another.

“Every town in the world these days, whether it’s San Frisco or London, is defined by man-made landmarks.

“Just like the Sea Cliff Bridge, this can be one of the best investments ever made in Forster’s tourism future.”

Mr Bromhead has a petition available calling for more lanes across the water, which people can support by signing at his Tuncurry office on Manning St.