VISITING the Coffs Harbour Bypass project on Wednesday 7 June, The Hon Jenny Aitchison MLC, NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, spoke with News Of The Area about the importance of the community seeing the progress made to date.

The Coffs Harbour Bypass is a jointly funded project with the Australian Government committing $1.76 billion and the remaining $440 million coming from the NSW Government.

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The site offices in North Boambee Road have been recently completed, a large part of the required workforce is in place, local contractors are engaged and more than 75 tender packages are under assessment.

“The scale of the project is massive,” Ms Aitchison told NOTA.

“Talking with residents about the traffic delays and seeing all the new builds around Coffs Harbour shows there really is a need for this bypass; it will be a game-changer.

“We did a tour of the route and while there’s still cut throughs happening, seeing it from all angles gave perspective.

“It’s exciting to see, and there’s real enthusiasm amongst the crews,” she said.

According to the Minister, much of the current work is happening in areas members of the public don’t usually see.

That will change soon however, with the start of bulk earthworks, followed by the Korora Bus Interchange and Englands Road interchange.

Tunnel construction will start later in the year.

Other near-time activities will include work to establish access points to the corridor, drainage and bridge work, compound sites being developed, vegetation removal in the project corridor and along the project boundary and the installation of project boundary fencing.

Work will also start on building new road connections between Campbell Close and the Pacific Highway and between Russ Hammond Close and Korora School Road.

The Coffs Harbour Bypass is scheduled to be open to traffic by late 2026 and be fully complete by late 2027.

Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King said, “This is work the people of Coffs Harbour have waited so long for.

“We expect the project will create about 600 direct jobs, including many for residents of Coffs Harbour and surrounds.

“To date, Ferrovial Gamuda Joint Venture has engaged fifteen local companies including one Aboriginal company.

“These contracts are valued at about $13 million and include some key local companies like Ahoy Traffic Control, Gosling Electrical, Geoff King Mitsubishi and Jaybro.

“Another 77 tender packages are in assessment or negotiations, and these are worth more than $500 million.

“In coming months there will be about 76 tender packages in assessment or negotiation, valued at about $140 million.”

In the lead up to the State Election in March 2023, the Nationals promised to commit up to $10 million for a project to build the barrier between the Coffs Bypass and the proposed Pacific Bay Resort Stage 2 – Film Studios and Village.

With Labor now in government in NSW, the affected residents are keen to see the ‘sound wall’ as part of its promise to the community.

“We are in positive discussions with the proponents of the project, alive to the needs of the residents in the area, and we want to be doing the right thing by everyone,” said Minister Aitchison.

“It will be a whole of government approach,” she said.

By Andrea FERRARI