Concerns about the capacity of Glossop Street, St Marys have fallen on deaf ears, with the NSW Government confirming it has no plans to reclassify it from a regional to state road.
Last month, Deputy Mayor Tricia Hitchen again raised the issue, having previously done so in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
“I used to live on Glossop Street and the traffic there has always been bad, particularly with the trucks,” she said during Penrith Council’s July 23 meeting.
“Every time I raised the issue, I was told Council has approached the State Government for them to take over Glossop Street, but that had been refused.”
Cr Hitchen now worries how the road will cope with the opening of Pacific National’s new container terminal.
“I think we’ll need traffic management cameras, we’ll need some sort of traffic light synchronisation during the peak hours, I think the road needs resheeting for noise abatement – there’s a whole lot of things that need to happen on Glossop Street if we’re going to have that extra 100 trucks a day,” she said.
Londonderry MP Prue Car said it was a busy thoroughfare for both commercial and local traffic and made sense for it to be a state road.
However a Transport for NSW (TfNSW) spokesperson said it had no plans to shift the status quo.
“Glossop Street is an unclassified local road with no change to this under consideration,” it said.
“TfNSW is not planning any upgrades to the local road network as part of the freight hub development.”
Due for completion later this year, the St Marys Freight Hub will take up to 80,000 trucks that would normally travel between Port Botany and western Sydney off congested roads, including the M4 and M5, annually.
“Shift change over times for truck drivers will coincide with school drop-off and pick-up times, thereby eliminating delivery trucks from local roads at these busy times,” a Pacific National spokeswoman said.
“Delivery trucks will exit the hub on Forrester Road where thermal imaging motion detectors will be installed inside the facility and trucks will not be permitted to leave until the detector is clear of people on Forrester Road and is safe to do so.”
Lendlease is expected to upgrade two roundabouts on Forrester Road (at Christie Street and Ropes Crossing Boulevard) to signalised intersections, but not until the second quarter of 2023, Penrith Council said.
Alena Higgins is the Weekender’s Senior News Reporter, primarily covering courts and Council issues.
