Motorists face wait to find out fix for Great Western Highway

Motorists severely disrupted by the closure of a critical motorway over the Blue Mountains will have to wait up to six weeks to find out the engineering fix and how long it will take to complete.

A stretch of the Great Western Highway at Victoria Pass has been closed indefinitely since March 9 after engineers found serious cracking and ground movement in a stone causeway built by convicts nearly 200 years ago. The road defects and bulging of sandstone walls risked the causeway collapsing.

After more than 20 companies were briefed late last month, two consortia led by contractors Seymour Whyte and Gamuda have been shortlisted to develop solutions for the closed section of the highway by the end of June.

The government confirmed that an update on the length of time the highway will remain shut will be released once it decides on which consortium to sign to carry out the complex repair work.

Transport for NSW is considering the potential for staged approaches that could allow limited access on the highway through Victoria Pass while the road is under repair. The motorway had been used by up to 12,000 vehicles a day.

Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison said shortlisted solutions were being developed in parallel so authorities could decide which approach would provide the best outcome, sooner.

“We don’t underestimate the impact this closure is having on people’s daily lives,” she said. “This is a unique process that is moving at a pace. We are throwing everything we can at this.”

Geotechnical testing has found the bedrock under the causeway remains strong, which means the same alignment can be built upon. It avoids the prospect of an alternative route having to be built, which would have been more costly and taken longer to complete.

Aitchison has not put a timeframe on the likely length of time the highway will be shut, although Premier Chris Minns has conceded it will require a “complicated rebuild”, which would “not be quick”.

Motorists have been forced to use Darling Causeway and Chifley Road for a 25-minute detour, which is also placing financial pressure on business owners who rely on passing traffic at places such as Little Hartley in the Blue Mountains.

Hartley District Progress Association president Ramsay Moodie said residents needed a solution to bus transport problems while small businesses required financial support.

“We are a community suffering significantly. We have been bypassed and dropped in a black hole,” he said, citing children who had to endure a two-hour bus ride to get to school. “We have a lot of anxious people around us in Hartley.”

Aitchison said the government had already committed $50 million to upgrading the detour routes, while public transport had been bolstered by putting on extra trains and free coach services.

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