NSW Roads, Maritime and Freight Minister, Melinda Pavey is under pressure to prioritise two major road projects to improve Maitland motorists’ access to the Hunter Expressway.
Member for Maitland, Jenny Aitchison has today hosted Shadow Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight, Jodi McKay to provide her with an update on Testers Hollow and Maitland’s railway roundabout.
Roads and Maritime Services will soon commence investigation work on the Testers Hollow upgrade with planning to be completed by mid-2019. The NSW Government has allocated $2 million to the project with the Federal Government contributing $15 million.
Raising Cessnock Road at Testers Hollow is vital so thousands of motorists, including the residents of nearby Gillieston Heights, can access the expressway during times of flood.
Further north on Cessnock Road, Labor is demanding the State Government release its plans to ease congestion at Maitland’s railway roundabout, saying traffic lights and a widening of lanes at Church Street are urgently needed to reduce congestion.
Roads and Maritime Services is said to have completed a detailed investigation into the congestion but the Berejiklian-Barilaro Government has not yet released this to the public for comment.
Weekday afternoons New England Highway traffic through the roundabout experiences lengthy delays whilst during the morning peak the demand to get into Central Maitland is causing traffic to also bank-up onto Cessnock Road.
Quotes attributable to Member for Maitland Jenny Aitchison
“The $15 million commitment from the Federal Government for Testers Hollow was secured by the Member for Paterson, Meryl Swanson MP back in 2016. The State Government has contributed a measly $2 million and nothing has actually been built with this money. The State Government needs to ensure the road is raised as soon as possible.”
“The community has lobbied for Testers Hollow to be raised for generations. We have a solution on the table which has bipartisan support and funding from both levels of Government that has taken decades to secure. The Minister for Roads must do her part to expedite this solution immediately.”
“The government has known since it opened that its $51 million New England Highway overpass hasn’t solved the traffic congestion problems at Maitland’s railway roundabout, so it should come clean on how it’s going to fix these problems.”
“Road safety should not be a political football in one of the fastest growing regional cities in this state. Maitland’s population continues to increase but our road infrastructure hasn’t kept up with the demands being placed on it.”
Quotes attributable to Shadow Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight, Jodi McKay
“The people of Maitland have spoken. Labor understands that the Testers Hollow upgrade and the Maitland railway roundabout upgrade are vital pieces of community infrastructure that would be of great benefit for drivers on a daily basis.”
“The commuters of Maitland know all too well that when it comes to the Berejiklian Government, it’s one standard for Sydneysiders and another for the people of the Hunter. It’s time for the Minister to apply one standard and finally deliver these much needed projects for the community.”
