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Road by-pass wanted for Bulls Hill

A public meeting convened by Gosford Council has endorsed plans for a railway underpass at South Woy Woy and called for a by-pass of Bull's Hill through the National Park.

Approximately 120 people attended the recent public meeting held to discuss the community's preferred option for the replacement of the railway level crossing and underpass at South Woy Woy.

The meeting resolved 79 to eight with some abstentions that:

a) Council continue with the current planning for an underpass, including commissioning an environmental assessment and detailed costing to be followed by a further public meeting.

b) Further investigations be undertaken on a route linking Nagari Rd in the south to Woy Woy Rd in the north, passing through the National Park to the west of Woy Woy Rd.

In 1998, council held two public meetings where several options were discussed, including road bridges across the railway line.

The community strongly supported the option of the underpass under the railway at the bottom of Bull's Hill.

Council resolved the same year to unanimously support this option.

Since that time there has been little progress on the matter because of a lack of funding from the State Government however, council has been pursuing the matter and the public meeting was held to update the community.

Council officers informed the community that recently a Value Management Workshop on the proposed closure of the level crossing and its replacement had been held.

The workshop was attended by the RTA, the SRA, the Rail Infrastructure Corporation (RIC), Emergency Services, the NPWS, Council officers and community representatives.

The workshop had discussed all the options in detail and had agreed that the option chosen by the community and endorsed by the Council was the best option.

At the public meeting Council's Director of Engineering Services, Mr Stephen Glen, gave a brief overview of the workshop, including the information provided by the RIC that the State Government was continuing to investigate options for a fast train from Sydney to Newcastle.

Mr Glen also stated that goods trains as long as 1.8km long could soon appear on the line with the resultant increase in down time for the level crossing.

This was a serious matter as already emergency services were being held up at the crossing for several minutes when trains were crossing and this would be exacerbated as the trains got longer.

Concept plans were on display showing the proposals for traffic handling measures along Woy Woy Rd at Horsfield Rd, Woy Woy Bay Rd and Banyo Close.

There was some discussion over whether Bull's Hill should remain at two lanes or become four.

This would largely depend on the width of the underpass and Mr Glen stated that that decision had not yet been made.

Council officers stressed that everything was still in the proposal stage and that funding for the underpass was not included in the recently released Traffic Management Study for the Central Coast.

Lynne Bockholt, August 21