The Beagle Editor,
Note, I am for a bypass (we really need one) just not the current proposed Orange route.
Firstly everyone needs to be aware that the new bridge and highway will be 2km to the east (at the closest point) and the nearest access points to Moruya from this new road will be 3.2km South from town or 3.5km North of town.
Why is this a problem?
Studies of bypasses show that the further the highway is moved from a town, the bigger the economic impact on the town and its businesses.
Example Study
https://dspace.carthage.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/6263/MattF.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&fbclid=IwAR088Ke9fh6vBrgRGfdjQ1ORQ0AjpWDgw1P2DdOGFMx7X9rwZRN52pHEZ1o
pg.8.
“The results showed that the farther away the traffic is transported from the city, the greater effect that the bypass has on the city.
One place of study is in Yass, Australia. A bypass was built around the town and after a year, researchers studied the area. “48.3% of retail businesses had a decrease in gross annual sales. 14% of jobs were lost.” (Srinivasan et al. 2002). “
So if you look closely at bypasses up and down the coast (that people recognise as being successful) you may notice that nearly all have bypasses that merely skirt the edge of town, and have a turn off into the CBD or main street from the bypass.
However the Moruya bypass plan does not appear to look at economic impacts on the town of moving the Highway several kilometres away?
Their main reason given for preferring the Orange route over the purple route is “liveability” claiming a lower impact for the orange option, but this appears to also be incorrect.
e.g. The Orange route goes through several clusters of homes (see google photo examples above) some of which obviously will have to be demolished. One elderly farming couple came to the same public info session and complained that they were not informed that they were affected, or that their home would likely need to be demolished. Compare this to the alternative Purple route, which is actually the lowest impact and shortest route. Coming across the river through tree cover just east of riverside park, not even visible, then through an empty paddock in front of the sewer works (no view lost there) Then through empty wetland paddocks next to the existing highway and golf course (no-one affected there?) then behind trees heading south east behind the big Church block and TAFE and joining back to the old Highway right before the entrance to the new Hospital. Also there can be no future development around the purple route road, because it is all through flood prone lowlands where future development is not allowed. The longest route to the new hospital is actually the Orange route (as the government plans admits) Not only is the Orange bypass much longer, but Ambulances will have to drive an extra 1.6km off the new highway to backtrack to the new hospital. So the ‘liveability’ impact of the Orange route is much higher than the purple, and the economic impact is likely to be far more severe. We have to the 14th June to submit a comment on this link. https://princeshighway.nsw.gov.au/tfnsw/phu/have-your-say-moruya?fbclid=IwAR3FWEb77hYzd4BRjynd56wmFt-e0fLPCS_R4H38SODnodeAW1pSZNFwcxs Damien Rogers Moruya
