Glenfield Road Upgrades

Updated December 2020

Wagga Wagga City Council released the Wagga Wagga Integrated Transport Strategy and Implementation Plan 2040 in August 2017.

Key projects and initiatives contained within the comprehensive Plan relative to addressing the Glenfield Road Corridor include:

• Improve intersections with the Olympic Highway in collaboration with the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS)

• Work with RMS to improve intersections along arterial roads

• Implement the road hierarchy plan to ensure that major road corridors provide for functional and efficient movement of traffic

• Review the layout of key routes and analyse options for improved functionality, particularly the Glenfield Road/Pearson Street Corridor, Docker/Gurwood Street Corridor and Tarcutta Street

• Enter into negotiations with RMS to transfer regional road status from Bourke Street to the Glenfield Road/Pearson Street Corridor

• Liaise with RMS to ensure that State operated roads are managed to provide the best outcome for the city (particularly the Olympic and Sturt Highways with regard to intersection treatments)

• Assessing the infrastructure requirements needed to meet the future needs of the Northern growth area

• Negotiate for duplication of the Gobbagombalin Bridge

• Investigating an alternate heavy vehicle route from the Sturt Highway to the Olympic Way and review heavy vehicle current usage of existing northern infrastructure

• Work with RMS to preserve a heavy vehicle bypass corridor south of the Sturt Highway within Council strategies

• Negotiate a program with the NSW Government and Federal Government for timing of a heavy vehicle bypass

In September 2020 Wagga Wagga City Council applied to have several roads within the city reclassified to Regional Roads to better reflect their role in the regional road network and utilise State Government funding for ongoing maintenance and repairs. This included reclassifying Glenfield Road from Red Hill Road to Urana Street as a Regional Road. For further details please click here.

Further to the release of the Wagga Wagga Integrated Transport Strategy and Implementation Plan 2040, in 2018 Transport for NSW initiated a Wagga Wagga Place Plan process.

Transport for NSW is working with Wagga Wagga City Council to develop a “Wagga Wagga Future Transport Place Plan”. Place Plans were a commitment in the Future Transport 2056 Regional NSW Services & Infrastructure Plan, released in March 2018. Their intention is to take a long-term integrated view of the future of transport in key regional places such as Wagga Wagga. The Wagga Wagga Future Transport Place Plan is informed by input from Wagga Wagga City Council, the RMS, Transport for NSW, other government agencies and invited stakeholders. Committee for Wagga was invited to participate in a Workshop held in February 2019 to have input into the development of the Plan.

The Wagga Wagga Future Transport Place Plan will provide the strategy for delivery of future transport outcomes by government for Wagga Wagga. The Place Plan is expected to be released in February 2021.

Committee for Wagga expects that there will be transparency as to how those significant projects contained within the Wagga Wagga Integrated Transport Strategy and Implementation Plan 2040 will be impacted in terms of timing of delivery and scope.

Background

The Glenfield Road corridor links major residential suburbs including Glenfield, Mt Austin, Lloyd, Bourkelands and Springvale with key commercial precincts, the central business area and places of work. 

The two-lane road travels from the Red Hill Road intersection for 2.35kms before merging into Pearson Street at the northern end. The Pearson Street section includes a two-lane road overpass of the Sydney-Melbourne rail corridor before entering a complicated and accident prone double-roundabout at the Dobney Avenue intersection and eventually intersecting with the Sturt Highway. 

The road is one of the most congested in the city and the main arterial route to and from the central business area for an estimated 8,000 residents. As further residential development occurs in Springvale and Lloyd this figure will increase to over 11,000 by 2034. Census data suggests approximately 65% of Wagga Wagga residents travel to work by car and a further 5% travel by car as a passenger. Therefore, conservative estimates suggest up to 5,200 people travel along the road to and from their place of work on weekdays. The majority of these movements would occur during peak periods in the morning and afternoons during the commute to and from work. 

Duplication of the rail overpass to provide four travelling lanes is required initially to reduce pressure on the route before ultimately duplicating the 2.9kms of road from the southern roundabout on Pearson Street through to the Red Hill Road intersection. By providing a solution to the current bottleneck at the rail overpass, more traffic will be encouraged to use the route as an alternative to Bourke Street and discussions can commence with RMS to reallocate regional road status from Bourke Street to Glenfield Road. This will be a positive outcome and establish Glenfield Road as the main north-south feeder road and transfer traffic volume away from the medical precinct. 

The project is listed as a concept within Wagga Wagga City Council’s Long Term Financial Plan 2016/17 and $4.4M is allocated between 2017 and 2020, however the scope and staging of the broader project has not been specified. It is therefore important to initially undertake a comprehensive traffic study along the route to understand what treatments are required and to establish a suitable timeline for delivery, potentially developed in stages to meet demand. This work will confirm the project scope, the detailed costings and enable the project to move from a concept to fully funded and listed in future capital works programs for completion when the demand study recommends. 

Glenfield Road will cater for over 11,000 residents following the residential developments of Lloyd and Springvale.