Tamworth's Country Road Roundabout completed, but search on for new artwork to beautify $9.5 million project

The five-leg, dual lane Country Road Roundabout at the intersection of Oxley Highway and Country Road in Westdale is open to traffic, after construction began in July last year.

The opening was delayed by several months due to wet weather and "soil conditions".

Tamworth mayor Russell Webb said despite Transport for NSW pulling the pin on the $50,000 Taking Flight sculpture planned for the roundabout due to "safety concerns", council wants to find a new artwork to install.

"There were some issues around the sculpture that was going to go in the middle, and there'll be some conversations about what might go there, but the intention is still some kind of artwork," he said.

"We want to make it look as nice as we possibly can."

The piece of infrastructure has been touted as a critical step towards activating the Tamworth Global Gateway Park, and creating access points between the Oxley Highway, Tamworth Regional Airport, the Intermodal Freight Facility and Hunter Land's Tamworth Business Park.

Ten out of 19 lots in stages one and two are sold or under contract at the Global Gateway Park, with international and national manufacturing and logistics companies expected to be up and running by mid-next year.

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Cr Webb said the roundabout is part of Tamworth Regional Council's broader transport strategy for the city, and he hopes it will one day link to a southern bypass of Tamworth.

"Country Road will in turn become a bypass for Tamworth into the future," he said.

Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson said the new roundabout, and the Global Gateway Park will allow significant economic growth and development for Tamworth.

"This is a very, very busy intersection. We're seeing more and more traffic use Gunnedah Road, heading out to the airport," he said.

"We just saw recently the opening of a $9 million brand new Rural Fire Service state-of-the-art emergency control center, so we're seeing a lot more industry come out to this particular area."

The project is part of the process of designing a city that will take the New England through the next half of this century, New England MP Barnaby Joyce said.

"We know that we're going to start heading towards 100,000 people, there's nothing we can do about that, it's just going to happen. People are pouring in, that's why we need infrastructure such as this," he said.

The $9.453 million project was funded through $4,532,000 from the Federal Government, $4,056,800 from the NSW Government, and $954,200 from Tamworth Regional Council.

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