FOR a project that was first promised in the 1950s, the final link of the Newcastle Inner City Bypass has been a long time coming.
The first official plans for the Rankin Park to Jesmond link were put on display for public exhibition in late 2016.
But years before then, two design features had universal support in the Hunter.
One was a full interchange as the bypass went past the western rear of the John Hunter Hospital, allowing access in and out of the campus in both directions.
The other was McCaffery Drive to be connected to the bypass by way of access ramps in both directions.
On paper, both requirements look like the sort of features that would be built in without any real debate.
A 2019 "state significant infrastructure" assessment report notes that McCaffrey Drive access had been an issue as early as 2006 - a full 10 years before the first plans went on display.
Yet as the report notes, the 2016 plans had only a half-interchange at the hospital, and the McCaffrey Road access was dismissed, partly on engineering difficulty, but also because traffic studies supposedly failed to warrant the connection.
Since then, John Hunter access has been upgraded to a full interchange - as it should have been originally - but Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) appears to be digging its heels in when it comes to McCaffery Drive.
Cardiff Road, Grandview Parade and McCaffrey Drive all come from the west in relatively short succession to join the A37/Lookout Road a few kilometres south of the hospital.
Both Cardiff Road and Grandview Parade will have direct access to the bypass, because they join the north-south route just south of where the new section splits off from Lookout Road.
But not McCaffrey Drive, even though RMS figures show it as the busiest of the three roads with or without the bypass, now and in 2030.
The cost of the McCaffrey Drive access is put at $25 million, which would add less than 10 per cent to the present price tag of $280 million.
Surely, we have seen enough short-term planning by RMS - the dual Tourle Street bridges stand as a permanent reminder of such folly - for the agency to realise that the cheapest quote is not always the best.
Build it once, and do it properly, with spare capacity if need be.
And listen to the locals.
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