Labor candidate for the seat of Wollongong Paul Scully has refuted suggestions a road project was included in the party’s regional action plan because it was the only one in the electorate.
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Mr Scully was part of the Labor team that on Wednesday launched the party’s jobs action plan, which included a pledge to spend $40 million on building an interchange to replace the intersection of Masters and Springhill Road.
The two most critical road projects in the region are the Albion Park Rail Bypass and the Mt Ousley interchange – neither of which are in the Wollongong electorate or Labor’s newly launched plan.
Instead the party had pledged to fund the Masters Road interchange, which is in the Wollongong electorate.
However, Mr Scully said the project was not added to the plan for that “exclusive reason”.
This is one of the most frustrating pinch points for traffic in the area.
- Paul Scully
“This is one of the most frustrating pinch points for traffic in the area,” Mr Scully said.
“Every day you only need to go down there morning, noon or night to see that there is traffic banked up and we need to make sure that we can get better flows of freight in and out of Port Kembla.
“Also [we need to see] that there is a free flow of passenger transport to and from the CBD to the southern suburbs.”
Mr Scully has previously said RDA Illawarra had called for the construction of the interchange.
However, in its 2014 submission to the Rebuilding NSW discussion paper outlining the key projects for the region the interchange does not appear.
The only Masters Road project mentioned is at the M1 Princes Motorway end, where they call for a flyover to link northbound highway traffic to Masters Road.
When asked to clarify this, Mr Scully said the project’s inclusion was driven by door-knocking residents in the area.
“They’ve identified that their priority is the intersection between Springhill Road and Masters Road,” Mr Scully said.
“Which is why we’ve chosen that as a priority for an upgrade.”