Council backs Eight Mile Lane upgrade

By Tim Howard

Another attempt to correct a failure to provide efficient heavy vehicle access to Grafton is heading to the NSW Government.

At its February 27 meeting Clarence Valley Council voted 8-1 to support a Mayoral Minute calling for the upgrade of Eight Mile Lane at Glenugie to allow heavy vehicle access to the M1.

Cr Steve Pickering moved to accept the motion, which called on the council to:

1. write to the Hon. Jenny Aitchison MP Minister for Regional Transport and Roads requesting the status of the Eight Mile Lane upgrade (from the M1 motorway/interchange) to facilitate B-Double Standard access from the M1 motorway to Big River Way (State Classified Roads) including associated intersections.
2. request that this section of Eight Mile Lane (approx. 2km) be prioritised for reclassification from a Regional to a State Road.
3. write to the Local Member for Clarence Richie Williamson MP seeking to reaffirm his support for points 1 and 2.

Cr Pickering said this had been on his radar since the M1 upgrade began construction.

constructed.

“When I actually was looking at the plans and I noticed that there was a piece of road not highlighted, being Eight Mile Lane,” he said.

“It wasn’t highlighted, which meant there was no work occurring on it. And I started asking questions about what was happening with this road. And nothing was happening with this road.”

Cr Steve Pickering

He said this had been oversight at the time which was pointed out at the time by local trucking companies and councillors.

“I actually had a meeting with three trucking companies and three trucking companies in my office in Ulmarra to talk about this many years ago when the road was being constructed,” he said.

“And I’ve got letters from Pearson’s trucks saying we support the upgrade of Eight Mile Lane and I’ve got I’ve I’ve got letters still going back all these years and and then I kept asking questions.”

He said his was at odds with advice from the council and State Government at the time, which said trucking companies had advised planners they didn’t want Eight Mile Lane upgrade.

Cr Pickering said the access Eight Mile Lane gave trucking coming to and from Grafton was important because it gave access to the city during flood time and took heavy vehicle traffic off the Big River Way, which went through the villages of Tyndale and Ulmarra.

“We’ve got trucks still traveling through our small towns and villages, through our school zones,” he said.

“Motor vehicle accidents are still happening on Big River Way between cars and trucks.

“So when you’ve got that interaction, there’s always the possibility of something going wrong and they do go wrong.

“This is a no-brainer for the state government to just finish the project they started, finish this missing link between Eight Mile Lane and Big River Way, allow our heavy vehicles access to this route, save them money, save them time, save the interaction with vehicles and pedestrians on our streets.”

Cr Debrah Novak said it was important the upgrade of Eight Mile Lane happened soon for economic reasons as well as safety.

Cr Deb Novak

“We are a trucking town,” she said. “One company  in South Grafton injects $10 million into our local economy and employs 100 people.

“So for that operation to be completely held up all the time because of that road not being fixed up properly it’s just not good economic sense.

“We need to support our business people.”

She said the current arrangements actually meant Grafton was missing out on some benefits of truck access to the city.

“And the other thing that’s really important to remember too, is that the trucks that are coming down Armidale Road, if they’re B-doubles, they are not allowed to use Big River Way so they needed to get onto the M1,” she said.

“They need to turn left on the Summerland Way, so we’re missing out on trucks like that utilising our central CBD area or additional area for any business works only things like that.

“So we’re missing out on economic activity there.”

Cr Greg Clancy was against the proposal on environmental grounds.

“My concern is the environmental impacts of upgrading Eight Mile Lane,” Cr Clancy said.

“I have done work there for council years ago, I declare an interest, but there’s a lot of high conservation value areas.

“There’s also First Nations cultural areas in there. And I do think that these could be restrictions on upgrading Eight Mile Lane and for us to support this now without knowing the full impacts is premature.”

He said the planners could have made a “doughnut” at Glenugie rather than upgrade Eight Mile Lane.

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