The road to Hell !

Yesterday two great ships sailed into Port Kembla harbour, the first of many that will deliver this state's car imports to the newly refurbished $ 167 million port facility.
The Tarago - of 67,000 tonnes - and the Taipan of 57,000 tonnes are much larger than the usual shipping using this port. They are welcome because they will rejuvenate an ageing port and bring many new jobs to the region - but they will also deliver an overload to this city's road system.

There are predictions that Port Kembla will handle somewhere near half a million new cars a year. Very few will be moved by rail because the rail system is presently overloaded moving coal and commuter traffic.
The new cars will be moved by road and that means a huge increase in car transporter trucks.
To exit Wollongong these vehicles will have to navigate the long, hard slog up Mt Ousley road and merge with the existing heavy commercial traffic. Many will continue along the F-6 and either use the Heathcote road to western Sydney or fight their way through the congestion by way of General Holmes drive.

There is another option that seems to have been overlooked. Many of these new cars will be destined for towns south of Sydney and even more will be headed to Sydney's west - and to achieve that will be routed along Appin road.

Appin road has an appalling death toll because it simply is not designed for the volume of traffic it presently moves. It services several major coal mines and hence carries a mix of coal miners driving to work and coal trucks moving the results of their labour. The addition of new fleets of car transporters will be a toxic increase to an already grossly overloaded and dangerous road.

Unfortunately there is no chance of any relief any time soon. The state government has initiated an enquiry into completing the abandoned Maldon-Dombarton rail link to western Sydney, but this will be years in the planning and construction stage if it is approved - and there are absolutely no plans for a road upgrade to relieve this additional traffic.

Once again the state government has solved one of it's problems by creating a major headache for the citizens of this area - and then walked away without offering any funds to resolve the problem !