When Lawrence Hargrave Drive closes next year, Tracey Gersback's commute will go from just 10 minutes to more than an hour.
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In the first half of 2020 Roads and Maritime Services is planning to close Lawrence Hargrave Drive between Otford Road and Chellow Dene Avenue for slope stablisation work.
There will be two four-week closures and RMS is calling for public submissions before deciding the exact dates.
Ms Gersback lives at Stanwell Park and works as a teacher at Helensburgh.
At present her trip to and from work is just 10 minutes up Lawrence Hargrave Drive - but the road closure will change everything.
"When the road's closed it's going to take me an extra 45 minutes in each direction," Ms Gersback said.
"And that would be if there's no traffic. There's going to be traffic through Thirroul and there's going to be traffic turning onto Bulli Pass at the bottom.
"All the traffic that comes up Lawrence Hargrave Drive is going to have to go that way. I'm expecting it to take me an hour."
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The closure will likely lead to a long queue of traffic at Thirroul waiting to turn right onto Bulli Pass. Ms Gersback, who has already given some thought to her planned commute, is considering heading south along the Princes Highway and then turning around to head north.
The teacher said she understood the need for the work - she can see the cracking along this stretch when she drives between Stanwell Park and Helensburgh - but she wonders if leaving one lane open would be a better option than two full closures.
Ms Gersback pointed out the planned closure of 1.3 kilometres of Lawrence Hargrave Drive will have a huge effect on the Illawarra's northern suburbs.
"It's going to hurt the businesses in Stanwell Park, like the cafes, considerably," she said.
"There are going to be children that live at Stanwell Tops that go to Stanwell Park primary school on a school bus - I'm not sure what they're going to do."
There's also the issue of whether the postie will be able to deliver the mail.
"When they've closed the road for a day for maintenance, we get no mail and no parcels delivered," she said.
"They just get taken straight to the post office at Helensburgh, so I'm not sure what they're going to when it's closed for a month."