The Manilla Road (Peel Street) upgrade at North Tamworth has reached a major milestone with new traffic lights at the busy Jewry Street intersection switched on.
Roads and Maritime Services engaged Tamworth Regional Council to carry out work on the $6 million project, funded by the NSW Government.
Tamworth Region Mayor Col Murray said it's great to see the major project completed.
"It will dramatically improve traffic flows and safety for the 14,000 drivers who use this intersection daily," he said. "Council's construction crews are to be congratulated for a job finished several weeks ahead of schedule and on budget for RMS and the State Government.
"I'm sure that is largely due to their decision to run shifts around the clock for two months of the five-month project."
State Member for Tamworth, Kevin Anderson, said the intersection has been a traffic pinch point for some time and to see it finished is a great relief to the 14,000 motorists who use this section of road daily.
"The project included removing two roundabouts at the Jewry street intersection and installing new traffic lights, new pavement, including a pedestrian crossing to make it even safer and it will deliver faster and safer travel times.
"This has been a fantastic NSW Government project that started two kilometres away at the intersection of Yarmouth Parade and Manilla Road in 2011 and worked its way to Jewry Street."
Cr Murray said construction works progressed particularly well considering the complexity of the project and the volume of traffic continuing to use the intersection. "Something like two million cars have driven through the intersection while the work has been in progress and there was not one significant traffic accident – that's simply outstanding," he said.
Mr Anderson agreed. "I want to thank Tamworth Regional Council, their engineers and staff who have worked on this project, and still managed to keep the traffic flowing during the construction period," he said.
"While the work to upgrade Manilla Road was being planned it was a great opportunity to also duplicate the Jewry Street bridge at the same time and I want to thank the Federal Government for that $3.5 million in funding. It completes the intersection and makes it a lot safer separating the traffic on the bridges."
Cr Murray said the intersection and the surrounding road precinct has transformed.
"This NSW Government funded upgrade of the intersection – along with the new second bridge over the Peel River in Jewry Street funded by the Australian Government thanks to our local Member for New England Barnaby Joyce - gives us the biggest single improvement to traffic flows for Tamworth's road network in almost 50 years," he said
Since 2011 the NSW Government has invested more than $20 million has been to improve Manilla Road to ensure it meets the growing demands of locals and the freight industry.
