NSW is littered with former highway towns that now watch the traffic bypass the businesses and traders who once served them so well. It is the cost of progress, perhaps, or at least of efficient transport networks and quicker holiday commutes.
There are often mixed fortunes when such big changes arrive, and they don't come much larger than the one bound for Hexham in the years ahead.
The M1 Motorway extension, pictured, is one of the biggest Hunter projects most of us will see in our lifetimes. It is an enormous amount of expenditure to iron out one of the major remaining wrinkles on the highway north, as anyone who travelled the route this long weekend can attest. There are too regularly ample opportunities for drivers to inspect the roadsides between Beresfield and Motto Farm.
It is famously a project that has lived in the same fantasy landscape as high speed rail for a long time, perhaps propagating doubts over whether it would ever reach reality. With work underway and both state and federal cash committed, though, attention is rightfully turning to getting the details right.
The Hunter Region Botanic Gardens have plenty at stake in making sure the project performs. Beyond the extensive range of plants grown there over many years, the attraction teeters between losing its ease of access and the potential for greater visitation when gridlock is banished from the holiday seasons. The restaurants just up the road are not there because the area is an unpopular one for motorists ready for a rest, particularly those who have driven from Sydney.
Those who have fought for McCaffrey Drive's integration into the Newcastle Inner City Bypass can attest that designs for such major projects are often imperfect in the first instance. Given the gargantuan scale of this new river crossing and how transformative it will be for a major Hunter road nexus, it would be improper to not raise potential issues with the design early enough that they can be taken into account before plans progress too far. Public feedback is the crucial step towards transparent and efficient infrastructure delivery.
With such an important road, it is promising that the state government is responding to such concerns. The final test will be the design itself, of course, but it appears the M1 Motorway extension is headed at least toward the right path.
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