Back

"The NSW Government has announced four completion dates for the Ballina Bypass (2002, 2004, 2006, 2010) and has missed or retreated from them all." See report below

 "The State Government indicated a completion date of December 2004 in the Roads and Traffic Authority [RTA] 1997-98 annual report.” Don Page MP, NSW Opposition Spokesman for Roads, 3/09/2003, p. 3111

"Completion Date for Ballina Bypass: n/a” NSW State Budget Estimates, 2003/04

"As such, no commitment to funding for commencement of construction has been made at this stage and a completion date for the project cannot yet be advised.” Tony Stewart MP, NSW State Parliamentary Secretary for Roads, 05/08/2003

2005 Still no sign of the bypass. Even when construction starts, it will take 4 to 5 years to finish. If the RTA started today, completion would be 2010. But they are not starting and we still have no significant funding commitment from the NSW Labor Government.

The Ballina Bypass Bottleneck
The Pacific Highway, one of Australia’s busiest and most important road links, passes directly through the heart of residential and retail areas in Ballina. Highway traffic is forced to negotiate five (soon to be six) roundabouts and two narrow bridges. The huge B-double trucks now permitted on the Pacific Highway can barely get around Ballina’s roundabouts, and squeeze smaller vehicles out of the way to make it, put wheels up on footpaths and brush adjacent power poles. As well, the highway’s route through town is heavily used by local cars, trucks, school buses, bicycles and pedestrians. There are also marked seasonal peaks in traffic flow, when the congestion level becomes extreme and bumper-to-bumper traffic can extend for 10 kilometres outside Ballina.[1] Motorists have reported that it can take an hour of stop-and-start driving to get through Ballina – a town of just 19,000 persons! The congestion, noise and risk to public safety is unacceptable.

Ten Year Upgrade Program
In January 1996, the NSW State Government and the Federal Government agreed to jointly fund the $2.2 billion Pacific Highway Upgrading Program over a period of 10 years. The NSW State Government was to provide $1.6 billion and the Federal Government $600 million. The Ballina Bypass, which was identified as one of the projects to be completed in the upgrade, was to be funded entirely by the NSW State Government.[2]

Status of Ballina Bypass
The proposed Ballina Bypass is (in total) a 12.5km project with an estimated cost of $245 million.[3] The NSW State Government has spent only $12 million on the bypass project so far (4.9% of the total cost) and plans to spend only $12 million more in the 2003/04 financial year.[4] The total financial commitment to date is less than 10% of the project cost. We have been advised by senior RTA officers that funds allocated to date have been expended on engineering and environmental investigations, and on some land acquisitions. It should also be noted that the NSW State Government has downgraded its estimated completion date yet again, this time from 2010 to “n/a”.[5]

Extraordinary Offer of Federal Money
As a result of an approach by the Ballina Bypass Action Group to Federal Minister for Transport and Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson in November 2003, the Federal Government offered to provide half the cost of the Ballina Bypass, despite it being wholly the financial and contractual responsibility of the NSW Government. This offer is worth over $100 million. Inexplicably the NSW Government has not taken it up.

Failures and Delays
The NSW State Government has already announced four completion dates for the Ballina Bypass (2002, 2004, 2006, 2010) and has missed or retreated from them all. In the 2003/2004 NSW State Budget, the completion date has now been diluted to a vague "n/a". 

Effect of the Yelgun-Chinderah Upgrade
The recent upgrade of the Yelgun-Chinderah section of the Pacific Highway (north of Ballina) has encouraged many heavy vehicles that previously used the inland New England Highway between Brisbane and Sydney to switch to the faster and flatter Pacific Highway coastal route. “There are now almost 13,000 heavy vehicles using the Pacific Highway each week, as compared to 6,000 using the New England highway.” The massive impact of this extra traffic on the existing non-upgraded sections of the Pacific Highway does not appear to have been anticipated by the RTA. Heavy traffic volumes on the Pacific Highway have increased by 40 per cent over previous levels. This huge rise occurred literally overnight when the Yelgun-Chinderah upgrade was opened to public use.[7] According to research by State Member for Ballina, Don Page, “Figures show an increase of at least 2,000 heavy vehicles a week on the Pacific Highway since 2001, while there are almost 1,000 fewer heavy vehicles per week using the New England Highway since that time.”[8] The result is that highway traffic congestion in Ballina has gone from bad to worse.

Proposals That Could Be Implemented Easily:

1. Ban B-doubles from the Pacific Highway. Put these trucks back on the New England route where they will have the room they need and the traffic is much less dense.

2. Impose an 80kph truck speed limit on non-upgraded sections of the Pacific Highway.

The NSW Government could make these changes tomorrow and bring immediate relief to many of the problems that plague the Pacific Highway. 

Please sign our online petition to the Premier of NSW.

Other Links
http://www.pacifichwy.blogspot.com

[1] Hon. C. Cusack MLC, Hansard, 29/05/2003, p. 1467
[2] Federal Department of Transport and Regional Services, Transport Programmes, see http://www.dotars.gov.au
[3] NSW State Budget, 2003/04
[4] ibid
[5] ibid
[6] D. Page, MP, Byron Shire Echo, 21/10/03, p. 2
[7] D. Page MP, Hansard, 22/05/2003, p. 1068
[8] D. Page MP, Hansard, 03/09/2003, p. 3111
[9] P. Forward (RTA Chief Executive), Daily Telegraph, October 15, 2003, p. 32