Went to a meeting the other night to listen to what the Mayor has to say for herself about the Bypass. She has demanded from the RMS and Pollies, the Best Bypass for Coffs Harbour which means tunnels, not cuttings. What I found interesting was not the tunnel v cutting but asked the Mayor about the Coramba Road Interchange. This interchange is midway along the Bypass and offers any east/west traffic the option of using the Bypass or continue with the current local roads into Coffs Harbour and onto the existing Highway.
Now our Mayor, who has demanded the Best Bypass for Coffs Harbour states the Council is NOT in favour of this Interchange and the reason, rather the excuse, is the local road is not up scratch and can not handle the additional traffic. There is a section of split level lanes which creates problems and basically due to cost and it's just too hard, Council is not going to upgrade this road. It is okay for the Mayor to demand the Best Bypass but will refuse to fix it's own local roads.
Another Council rep added another reason, excuse, why Council is opposed to the Coramba Road Interchange and that is that trucks coming down Red Hill into Coffs Harbour will not be able to stop at the bottom for the two roundabouts and trucks using engine braking or exhaust braking, will be too noisy coming down Red Hill. Now heavy vehicles have been using engine/exhaust braking coming down this hill ever since they started coming down the hill as it is the only safe way to come down the hill and manage to take the meandering road at the bottom.
Listening to both I found their excuse to be some of the most pathetic hypercritical they could come up with to stop the Bypass from being the Best Bypass to being a waste of $1.5b. Following further discussion the Mayor fully agrees the roadway needs fixing, but showed no interest in fixing the local road network to marry into the Bypass to give us the Best Option available.
