Peter Bascomb speaks during the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Snowy Valleys Council and Snowy Monaro Regional Council for the Bobeyan Road upgrade. Photo: SMRC.
A road upgrade in the Monaro worth millions of dollars will not only make the journey to Canberra safer, it is also expected to reduce travel times.
There were three crashes on Bobeyan Road – the NSW section of which runs from Adaminaby to the ACT border, between 2014 to 2017, but fortunately, none resulted in fatalities.
Utilising $20 million from the NSW government, the Snowy Valleys and Snowy Monaro Regional Councils have joined to improve this section of the road.
“This project will improve connectivity to Canberra, identified as a key enabler for realising positive benefits from regional investments,” Snowy Monaro Regional Council (SMRC) CEO Peter Bascomb said.
“The sealing of the road will not only make it safer but will cut driving time to Canberra by at least an hour.”
An SMRC spokesperson said the Black Summer bushfires demonstrated the importance of the road for emergency response, with a lot of additional firefighting resources travelling from the north into Adaminaby.
“(Bobeyan Road is) used as a direct route from Canberra to Adaminaby by fishing enthusiasts and other tourists, but the present condition of the road has severely limited this use,” the spokesperson said.
“Local residents along the road and those in Adaminaby will benefit tremendously from improved access to Canberra and the highway.”
A school bus route also uses the road.
The upgrade is expected to be completed in June 2023 although the recent bushfires which impacted the Snowy Mountains area, prevented the start of on-ground project works.
But significant pre-construction works were done in the interim, including detailed survey and designs, heritage and Indigenous Australian assessments and ordering of materials.
Onsite works have now commenced, starting with the reconstruction of the Back Creek Crossing.
The works include widening of the road formation as well as travel lanes and shoulders, upgrade of the intersections at Shannon’s Flat and Yaouk Roads, improved driveway junctions and realignment and smoothing of the road alignment on some of the bends.
When the memorandum of understanding for the Bobeyan Road upgrade was signed by the two councils on 18 October, the former Member for Monaro, John Barilaro, said he had committed to delivering the upgrade in 2019 and a major step forward had been taken with the start of the works.
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