Years late and double the cost: The missed opportunity to build Tripoli Way

Shellharbour City Council is currently in the detailed design stage of the long-awaited road, which would allow motorists to bypass the congested Albion Park town centre between Broughton Avenue and the Illawarra Highway.

The project is jointly funded by the NSW government and the local council and is projected to cost over $40 million.

But scuppered plans to build the road at the same time as the $630 million Albion Park Rail bypass could have seen the link completed by now, for half the projected price.

Shellharbour council has been planning for a road to remove through-traffic between Albion Park and the Princes Highway since 1961.

Since 1993. a portion of the returns from each roadway sold by the council has been earmarked for the project, along with development contributions from around the LGA.

The cost of the council's contribution to the project is roughly equivalent to the entire capital works budget for the council in a single year, and will be one of the largest road projects the council has ever undertaken.

But as plans progressed for the nearby Albion Park Rail bypass nearly a decade ago, there was an opportunity to link the two projects, cut down costs and speed up the delivery of the road as the suburbs of Tullimbar and Calderwood sprang out of farmland, rapidly becoming the fastest growing area anywhere in NSW outside of Sydney.

Council documents from 2015 show that as Transport for NSW - then Roads and Maritime Services - were preparing the planning documents for the Albion Park Rail bypass, there was an opportunity for the two projects to be built simultaneously.

"The new road presents an opportunity to provide on and off ramps which will connect the M1 to the Illawarra Highway at Albion Park and the proposed Tripoli Way extension," the documents state.

A report to council recommends council accelerate its plans for the bypass - then not scheduled until 2027 - because if council did not meet RMS's deadline of late 2016, the additional ramps connecting the two roads would not be built.

"The RMS has concluded that Tripoli Way is of such importance that without its construction coinciding with the M1 extension the north-bound exit ramp and south-bound entry ramp will not be provided."

At the time, it was the council's position that any delay to the ramps was "unacceptable".

Councillors accepted this recommendation, as then-councillor Peter Moran recalls.

"Council made the offer to RMS that we would accelerate the construction of the Tripoli Way bypass and ensure that it was open in conjunction with the opening of the Albion Park Rail bypass, on the proviso that we would have off-ramps there so that traffic could easily bypass the centre of Albion Park," he said.

However, as the project progressed, this did not eventuate. The offramps were moved to their current alignment with Tongarra Road and the two projects were 'decoupled'.

"The current configuration of the on and off ramps at Albion Park were designed and constructed as part of the Albion Park Rail bypass to improve the traffic efficiency and road safety of the Albion Park Interchange and minimise agricultural impacts," a Transport for NSW spokesperson said.

"The design of two separate interchanges was developed to respond to community submissions received during the display of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Albion Park Rail bypass, and to improve traffic efficiency following more detailed traffic modelling."

In a strongly worded submission to the Albion Park Rail bypass project in 2017, council staff write that the project "should not be approved" unless the offramps were included.

"Shellharbour City Council wishes to advise that it does not support the revised design, in particular, the decoupling of the connection to the Albion Park By-pass and the relocation of the northbound exit ramp to Tongarra Road. It appears that the impacts on the agricultural lands have been given a much greater emphasis and priority than any other concerns or impacts raised by the Community or Government agencies during the exhibition."

The council submission goes on to note errors in the analysis conducted by RMS and alleges that proposals put forward by Council were dismissed by RMS.

Based on the preferred layout put forward by RMS, council staff identify issues such as flooding at the offramps on Tongarra Road, and increased traffic congestion at the corner of Terry Street and Tongarra Road.

"On and off ramps on Tongarra Road in my view have been the absolute worst outcome," Mr Moran said.

The Transport for NSW spokesperson said the "split interchange" would create a more resilient road network.

Mr Moran said in a meeting where the concerns about congestion and flooding were raised, a RMS project officer said their priority was delivering the Albion Park Rail bypass.

"All they were concerned about was building the project on time and on budget."

Longtime president of the Albion Park Chamber of Commerce Graeme Morrison has been pushing for the Tripoli Way project for years, as the congestion on Tongarra Road increasingly makes the town centre unviable.

"We're being choked by traffic," he said.

Mr Morrison was closely involved in the discussions at the time, and remembers the decoupling as occurring because Shellharbour council required funds from the state government to complete the project.

"They didn't have the funds, they didn't have the money to start the project."

Next door, however, the NSW government was spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the largest road project between Sydney and the Victorian border. In comparison, the additional funds to complete the connection to Tripoli Way were "chicken feed", Mr Morrison said.

The Transport for NSW spokesperson said both projects, once completed would reduce congestion.

"Modelling has confirmed both projects, Albion Park Rail bypass and Tripoli Way extension, will support the projected population growth of the region."

In the middle of all of this was local member Gareth Ward.

Mr Ward said he stands by his record of delivering $2 billion to upgrade roads in the Kiama electorate.

"I strongly support the need for stage 3 as this will help mitigate east/west traffic through Albion Park. If funding can be obtained for stage three, Tripoli Way would effectively become the new main road which would see Tongarra Road returned primarily local traffic," he said.\\

"I have advocated for funding for stage three and will continue to raise this issue with Transport for NSW and the NSW Government."

Mr Ward said campaign material that suggested only Labor would deliver the Tripoli Way Extension was a "Labor lie".

Mr Morrison said it was the state government's priorities that led to the bypass falling on the chopping room floor.

"I'm not going to criticise Gareth Ward. I think he's done pretty well, I think it comes down to government priorities."

Others are not so forgiving.

"If Gareth had stood up for his community six or seven years ago, they'd have the Tripoli Way bypass in place now, and the Albion Park community wouldn't be at risk of being cut off in floods," Mr Moran said.

Labor spokesperson for Kiama Sarah Kaine said the decision to not couple the two projects has led to cost increases and delays.

"The appropriate time to consider the delivery of this part of the project was with the bigger infrastructure developments that went on with the very excellent Albion Park Rail bypass."

Since the Albion Park Rail bypass has been built, the offramps at Tongarra Road have flooded, leaving the road impassable, while the Terry Street and Tongarra Road intersection is unworkable during peak hour, with businesses along the strip bearing the brunt.

"At the moment the traffic is gridlocked on Tongarra Road," Mr Morrison said. "You don't feel like stopping at a business, you want to get through as quickly as possible."

With the NSW government awarding Shellharbour council $20 million to build the Tripoli Way extension and council tipping in the rest, the first shovels are expected to hit the ground later this year.

But the design as it currently stands only solves half the problem. Traffic travelling north on the M1 from Shellharbour and Kiama will still have to negotiate Tongarra Road and the Terry Street intersection to get on to the bypass. Traffic from Calderwood and Tullimbar heading south will have to do the same in reverse.

Mr Morrison is pushing for a connection between the Tripoli Way extension where it currently ends at Terry Street to the M1 at the Tongarra Road offramps. The road would loop around behind the Albion Park showgrounds but it wouldn't come cheap, with the link needing to traverse the flood prone Frazers Creek.

Shellharbour Council's current advocacy document sets out that the council is asking for the NSW government to deliver stage three of the Tripoli Way extension or contribute towards funding the project.

Ms Kaine said the NSW government did not have plans to build additional ramps or connections at this stage but that the government wanted the best outcome

"There is a sense of trying to come to the best solution both during construction and ultimately ultimately for the overall plan for traffic flow in these rapidly growing areas," she said.

"I'm optimistic that those conversations will be fruitful and a reasonable staging and delivery program will be determined."

Ward A councillor Maree Duffy-Moon said the priority was now to begin work at the western end of the bypass at Broughton Street.

"The most important thing is to keep this thing going and get it done," she said.

Ward A councillor Kellie Marsh said starting at the western end gave council and the community time to ensure the project was completed to the best standard.

"The project will be starting at Tullimbar first, so we'll still have some time up our sleeves."

But as Ward D councillor Rob Petreski pointed out, had things turned out differently in 2017, the project would be done and dusted by now.

"Ballpark it's going to cost us double what it would have back then if we had done it in 2017, as opposed to now," he said.

"I cannot for the life of me fathom why you wouldn't do it at that time."