The new bridge over the Shoalhaven River at Nowra has the potential to cut travel time by as much as 75 per cent.
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Roads and Maritime Services has released the environmental assessment and a revised plan for the new four-lane bridge in the wake of earlier consultation.
The $260 million bridge has been jointly funded by the NSW and federal governments and the work will see around 1.6 kilometres of the Princes Highway upgraded.
... the project will reduce journey times from Illaroo Road to south of the bridge by 75 per cent
- Roads and Maritime Services
After community consultation, Roads and Maritime Services has made changes to the bridge plan.
These include increasing the number of lanes on Illaroo Road to provide three dedicated right-turn lanes for southbound traffic over the bridge and a left-turn lane for northbound vehicles.
The Bridge Road/Pleasant Way intersection will be revamped to remove the traffic lights for southbound traffic at this location.
This will include closing Pleasant Way and a new road constructed to connect the Princes Highway to Lyrebird Drive.
In an overview of the environmental assessment, Roads and Maritime Services stated the new bridge and road upgrade would substantially cut travel time into Nowra.
“The project has been designed based on typical driving conditions on a weekday during peak hour,” the overview stated.
“During peak hour, the project will reduce journey times from Illaroo Road to south of the bridge [Bridge Road] by 78 per cent [AM] and 77 per cent [PM] and along the section of Princes Highway [from north to south] by about 33 per cent [AM] and 65 per cent [PM].
“This is based on future 2036 traffic figures of the proposed design versus a ‘do nothing’ option.”
Roads and Maritime Services had also considered a flyover to deal with traffic accessing side streets at either end of the bridge.
They were scrapped because they “would provide minimal additional benefit to traffic flow at intersections and would have much greater impacts to project cost”.
Roads and Maritime Services will keep the existing southbound bridge to provide pedestrian and cyclist access.
The bridge is expected to be complete by mid-2025.