A major road safety upgrade at Grandfathers Gully on George Bass Drive is progressing nicely says Warren Sharpe.
The Eurobodalla Council director of infrastructure said the decision had been made to keep the section of road near Lilli Pilli closed to through traffic until Friday 17 December.
"The temporary detour using the Link Road, Ridge Road and Tallgums Way is working well. Extending the road closure allows construction to safely continue to completion, without the need to manage high loads of traffic through a very busy jobsite," Mr Sharpe said.
"We will continue to review the need for the detour as work progresses."
George Bass Drive is a critical regional transport route and the section of road with several tight bends between Grandfathers Gully and Denise Drive has a poor history of road crashes.
Mr Sharpe said the upgrade and realignment would significantly improve drivers' line of sight, provide protected right-turn intersections, widen lanes and shoulders, and improve linemarking.
"George Bass Drive was the key evacuation route in the Black Summer fires while the Princes Highway was inaccessible. This upgrade at Lilli Pilli complements other projects along the road, creating a safer, more resilient route," he said.
Excess material cut from the Grandfathers Gully realignment will be used at four other safety projects along George Bass Drive: the duplication of northbound lanes north of Sunshine Bay Road, a new auxillary left-turn lane into North Rosedale, widened road shoulders at the Geurilla Bay turnoff, and shoulder fill to remove the hazardous drop-off north of Carramar Drive.
