Dubbo South New Bridge route options to go to council

Dubbo Regional Council initially developed four options for the Dubbo South New Bridge. In late 2020 those options went on public exhibition.

In a report to go to the council meeting on Thursday night, the council staff have recommended taking one option off the table because of the negative feedback it received from the public. Concerns were raised because the bridge would impact the Lady Cutler sports ovals.

The report has also put forward two options that should be taken to the next level, that is, for a detailed business case to be developed.

The first option is for a bridge that would go from the Minore Road intersection on the west, to Macquarie Street at the Tamworth intersection on the east. It has an estimated cost of $39 million.

The other favoured option in the report is for a bridge from Whylandra Street at the Dubbo Golf Club driveway on the west, to Macquarie Street at the Tamworth Street intersection in the east. The estimated cost would be $35 million.

The option that has been recommended to be scrapped is for a bridge from Whylandra Street at the Minore Road intersection on the west, to Bligh Street at the South Street and Sandy Beach Road intersection on the east.

The final option in the report is for a bridge from Whylandra Street at the Minore Rod intersection on the west, to Macquarie Street at the Bligh and Reakes Avenue intersection on the east. It's estimated to cost $41 million.

In the report, the council's infrastructure director Luke Ryan said the first two options had the best cost benefit ratio.

However, while the Whylandra/Macquarie street bridge has the lowest cost, it also needs the most land to be bought by the council, which has "not been valued to date", said Mr Ryan.

That option is also "likely to experience higher travel times than [the Minore/Maquarie option] for vehicles commuting to and from Minore Road across the bridge," he said.

"This is due to the longer travel distance along the alignment, as well as delays incurred by negotiating an additional intersection on the Newell Highway."

In 2020, the council said there were five main aims of the bridge.

One of the goals is to "reduce average travel times through the Dubbo road network by an average of 4.3 seconds per trip (a total of 89,700 hours per year) by 2030 to maintain the city's '10 minute character'".

Council also hopes it will reduce the number of traffic incidents at the Whylandra Street/Victoria Street intersection, increase connectivity between west Dubbo and the central business district, increase the percentage of travellers choosing active transport and facilitate the development of more than 6000 properties in the west Dubbo urban release area.

The report will be presented to the council's Infrastructure, Planning and Environment Committee on Thursday night.

If the councillors agree with the recommendation, a detailed business case will be prepared for the two preferred options.

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