The community will once again have input into the way our city grows and develops, after councillors agreed to place the Draft Borella Road and Riverina Highway Corridor Strategy on public exhibition.
The strategy, which was developed following two stages of public consultation earlier this year, outlines detailed plans to support the long-term future of growth in the city’s east.
That consultation included two community drop-in sessions outside the Borella Road shops, an online survey and a community workshop at the council offices.
As part of the consultation, workshops were also held with Albury-Wodonga Health, Transport for NSW, and Roads and Maritime Services.
The road corridor is controlled by the NSW Government so we’re looking forward to working with government agencies to deliver the improvements our community will need.
We’re also grateful to local business owners who have engaged with the process to provide information, support and insights into what they need now and what they may require in the future.
All of the information collected helped to create a map of the future for the corridor, which runs for about seven kilometres from the Hume Freeway interchange in the west to Kerr Road in the east.
The strategy proposes a range of measures to meet expected growth over coming decades with traffic volumes along the route expected to double over the next 40 years.
Those proposals include:
- Planning for future road duplication
- Upgrading major intersections, including new traffic lights and roundabouts
- Streamlining access to service roads, and
- Improving access and infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians
These works could include, for example, the installation of traffic lights at the Keene and East Street intersections and roundabouts at Airport Drive, Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Table Top Road and Kerr Road.
Anyone who regularly travels along the corridor will know that it can be busy, especially at peak times. As new industries and housing are developed along the route in coming years, with the associated demands of the planned expansion of Thurgoona-Wirlinga, those challenges will only increase.
Coupled with that growth, the corridor will also service the needs of a busy retail sector and support the growth of essential regional assets such as the hospital and the airport.
But by doing this planning now, we’ll be well placed to meet those challenges as they arise by ensuring the infrastructure is in place to effectively move traffic, pedestrians and cyclists while also providing the services and support that new industries will need as the area grows.
The strategy ties in with the shared council-community vision for the future, Albury2030, and is a natural progression of council’s fundamental building blocks of ‘People, Place and Progress’.
Essentially, these building blocks will provide the foundations for local people to build homes or invest in businesses, develop the place we call home so that it can meet its full potential, and ensure we all benefit from sustainable and planned progress that will make our city an even better place to live, work and invest.
Thank you to everyone who’s helped to develop this strategy so far. Your feedback has been invaluable in identifying the challenges, needs and aspirations for this very important part of our city.
If you haven’t yet provided your input, please take time to review the strategy, which is now on public exhibition, and provide your feedback so that we continue to work together to make our city even more vibrant, prosperous and welcoming – and most of all, ready to make the most of an exciting future.