Sitting at one of Tamworth’s most dreaded bottleneck-plagued stretches is enough to turn your knuckles white as your grip the wheel and grit your teeth in the faint hope of a miraculous fix. 

And on Monday, that finally came.

Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) plans to put a halt to the congested Manilla Road by widening it to four lanes. 

It announced that the popular strip, which is the main thoroughfare feeding into two of the city’s biggest schools, would begin to be widened between Tribe and Jewry streets from Tuesday.

It is undoubtedly welcome news to local drivers, as well as to state MP Kevin Anderson who likened the problematic road to “a dog’s breakfast”.

But with the good, comes the bad. 

The project, which is expected to take three months, is likely going to pose a huge inconvenience for commuters. 

Despite TRC regional services director Peter Resch insisting traffic along the highway will be kept flowing, drivers will continue to feel the pinch during construction. 

He maintains there will be additional storage for traffic heading north, particularly those going to William Cowper Anglican School and McCarthy Catholic College.

For traffic heading south, vehicles will be able to flow directly on the highway, but two lanes will be lost heading into the city. 

We cannot deny that this will be a positive step forward in the long run. 

Our city elects its leaders to make decisions on behalf of their constituents.

It is important that they are held to account, questioned and even come under fire when need be. 

However, it’s equally important that they are also praised when need be.

There will inevitably be criticisms over the decision to widen Manilla Road because it poses an inconvenience to some commuters. 

But we need to be patient and remember that the short-term pain of roadworks is for the greater long-term gain. 

The works also involve the removal of several old, silky oak trees and a culvert extension on both sides of road at the Tribe St end of the Northgate shopping centre.

The Manilla Rd upgrade is the beginning of a three-stage program, with a roundabout further down and duplication of the Jewry Street Bridge also on the horizon.