Sideling road a stand still

•   Sideling Road upgrade map.

By Taylor Clyne,
February 16, 2022

Stage one of the $64 million Sideling Road upgrade is in its final stage of approval with tenders being awarded this month.

Stage one will be broken up into two sections with the first upgrading 4.55 km between the Sideling lookout to the intersection of Whish-Wilson Road Tasman Highway. 

The second section, which is yet to be approved or tendered, is 10.61 km and starts from the intersection of Whish-Wilson Road to the intersection of Minstone Road.

Both sections will fully commit the current available funding of which an additional $14 million was allocated by the State in the lead up to the 2021 election.

The long-awaited project has long been the topic of local road users with many promises and not much action over decades of conversation.

When the initial $50 million was promised in 2019, a combination of $40 million Federal and $10 million State, it was said that the road would be built in this term of government.

But with another election looming it certainly will not be.

Mayor Greg Howard said its extremely disappointing that the bureaucracy has been so inefficient in this instance and taken almost three years to deliver next
to nothing.

“Originally when the money was promised it was assumed that Council would be responsible for the build in which case the $50 million would be spent, and the road would be built,” he said.

“The $50 million price tag was fact checked by one of Tasmania’s leading infrastructure companies and confirmed to be close to the mark however once the Department of Infrastructure got hold of it the cost to get the same project done has blown out to $120 million.”

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Michael Ferguson said the tender for the first section closed on December 3 last year and the contract award is awaiting the approval of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Public Works. 

“As soon as that approval is obtained, we will award the tender and get the successful contractor to work on this very important project,” he said.  

“The tender for construction the next section (Section 2) is scheduled to be advertised in mid-2022 with construction to commence in late-2022.

“We have ensured that the works will see the upgrade of the section of the Tasman Highway to a higher heavy vehicle standard. 

“It will involve straightening of the existing alignment, the addition of passing lanes and widening of the road that will benefit all Sideling users,” Mr Ferguson added.

As for the additional stages to complete the entire Sideling route more money, in the way of tens of millions, will need to be sought to complete.

Mayor Howard said it was obviously that stage two of the upgrade should be the Weeley Road/Corkerys Road option.

“This is by far the way the most cost effective and efficient route. 

“Consideration of using the remaining existing road of the Sideling should be canned immediately and get on with the design of Corkerys Road,” he concluded.