Mount Ousley Road may soon reach a tipping point when there is too much traffic for the road to handle, a University of Wollongong academic has warned.
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In recent days, an accident and a truck fire on separate sides of Mount Ousley Road have affected traffic.
The truck fire at the bottom of Mount Ousley Road yesterday morning closed both southbound lanes for an hour. Two of the three northbound lanes were also shut for the same period.
One southbound lane was closed for several more hours.
Having the major road in and out of Wollongong blocked – either partially or completely – could become more common, according to UOW transport expert Professor Philip Laird. The Illawarra was ‘‘very dependent’’ on Mount Ousley Road and it was carrying an ever-increasing amount of traffic.
As well as an increasing number of commuters to and from Sydney, Prof Laird said there had been approval for more trucks carrying coal, grain and quarry material to use the road over the past five years.
The truck on fire. Picture: JEFF BROUGHOn top of that, he said the Department of Planning was considering an application by Boral to increase truck movements along the road from its Dunmore quarry.
‘‘These cumulative impacts of the cars, more grain, more quarry products are beginning to add up,’’ Prof Laird said.
‘‘We’re showing signs that the level of service has been affected because of the car numbers, truck numbers and the road space. It means that we should be looking at rail and coastal shipping to take some of these loads.’’
Prof Laird said it was unlikely that work would be done to allow the road to take increased capacity due to the great expense.
"The last big upgrades on Mount Ousley were going ahead in the '90s. That's when it was made three lanes up and two coming down," he said.
"To augment the capacity of Mount Ousley Road now is going to be quite expensive. You're not looking at hundreds of millions like for the Berry Bypass.
"A project like that is likely to exceed the cost of completing the Maldon-Dombarton rail link.
"It's not only going to be a geotechnical challenge but a very costly exercise."
Prof Laird said the construction of the missing piece of infrastructure that is Maldon-Dombarton would take freight off the road as well as cars.
It would free up the existing rail line for more commuter services.
"We're very, very dependent on Sydney for employment," he said.
"The thing about Maldon-Dombarton is that you could divert a couple of freight trains onto it and allow more passenger trains [on the main line]."
