THE first sod may have been turned on the Coffs Harbour Bypass but there’s still some issues to overcome before the heavy machinery is allowed to roll in.

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Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole some key milestones need to be reached before work on the bypass begins in earnest.

Those issues include completing the tender process.

“Early next year we’ll be going out and then we’ll be announcing who the successful tender will be for the project and again, I’ll be back here in Coffs Harbour next year announcing the next phase of this important project,” Mr Toole said when he was in Coffs Harbour for the sod turning.

The Minister offered a couple of timelines, revealing it will be five years until the project is completed and open to traffic as well as when Coffs Harbour is likely to see heavy machinery first used.

“There’s still a lot of work that has to take place but it will probably be around 12 months before you start to see some of that heavy work occurring which is important for this project,” he said.

The immediate work on the project includes knocking down a house on Bruxner Park Road before building a new station on the site for the Solitary Rural Fire Brigade.

“We’re going to see door knocking taking place, door knocking to see some of those noise assessments occurring on some of the homes that are going to be alongside the bypass,” the Minister added.

“We’re going to see demolition of acquired properties.

“And we’re going to be going out for tender in the next few days for the work that’s required to move those utilities.

“That means underground power supply, moving some of those power lines which are part of this project.”

The acquisition of some properties along the route have still not been completed but Mr Toole is confident that will happen and that other properties affected by the bypass will have their needs met.

“There’s about 600 properties that will be impacted by noise. Obviously we’re going to be doing a lot of work with those properties themselves,” he said.

“There are 151 properties (in total) that either have to be acquired or partly acquired. We are still working through those properties.”

By Brad GREENSHIELDS