COUNCIL will start the new year on an infrastructure bender with work to begin on a new roundabout for the Peel and Marius streets’ intersection near the Northgate mall.
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The pinch-point has been a hot-spot for prangs and serious accidents and council has announced it will start work on a new roundabout on January 8.
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“As the development has happened on the lower side of Marius St, it’s been a serious challenge for those cars to get back on to Marius St safely,” mayor Col Murray said.
It’s part of ongoing works on the northern end of the main drag with an overhaul of the Jewry St intersection edging closer.
Council is confident the next stage of the Manilla Rd upgrade will be delivered with plans to widen the road to dual lanes in both directions from Jewry St to Tribe St.
“If you’re unfortunate enough to have to travel through there at 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon,” Cr Murray said.
“You’ll know how important this jobs is.
The mayor said it would a big mission and would “deliver the single-biggest improvement to traffic flows on Tamworth’s road network since the current two-lane pre-stressed concrete Jewry Street Bridge opened in December, 1971”.
“It’s a pretty big project,” he said.
“It’ll see traffic lights at that intersection of Jewry St and Peel St, it’ll see the two roundabouts taken away, so it’ll be a major change.
“The increased capacity for Tamworth’s road network is what we need to cater for the growing traffic volumes resulting from ongoing residential development in the Hills Plain area and growth of the Taminda industrial estate.”
Council’s kicking-off 2018 with infrastructure focus ticking-off some major projects and the mayor was buoyed, potentially, having the new federal government minister for the sector based in an electorate offfice a few block’s away from Ray Walsh House.
“That would be fantastic if that was to happen,” Cr Murray said.
“That local and regional knowledge is really critical to having good infrastructure plans around the region.
“That’d be a massive bonus for us.”
Barnaby Joyce’s office was contacted for comment.