1970
21 January 1970
“March on Parliament”
For Orange road link
A Cudgegong Shire Councillor has suggested “marching on Parliament House” and “lying on the roads,” to have something done about a bridge at Dixon’s Long Point to link Mudgee and Orange.
“Let’s do something”, Cr. Wal Evans told last Thursday’s council meeting after Shire President (Cr. Paul Khoury) said all previous efforts had failed.
Cr. Khoury said: “We’ve done everything humanly possible.
Our last deputation was with Canobolas Shire Council.
“We have also made representations through our local Members of Parliament.
“What else can we do?
“We can’t get a gun and hold it to their heads.”
Cr. Vin Suttor had suggested that a combined effort by the various councils concerned had not been made previously.
He said:”I think people are looking to us to contact others and get this thing moving.
“It’s been going on and on and on and we have become laughing stocks.”
Cr. Khoury said there had been “no relaxation on our part about Dixon’s Long Point”.
“I’m more anxious than you,” he told Cr. Suttor.
The council earlier decided that Cr. Khoury and the Shire Clerk (Mr. R. Sadgrove) should broach the issue at the regional meeting with the Presidents of the Shires Association and the Local Government Association.
The meeting will be held at Orange on March 2 with Canobolas Shire Council and Orange City Council joint hosts.
These two councils are also vitally interested in the Dixon’s Long Point bridge which will allow the free flow of traffic from Mudgee to Orange direct.
The Department of Main Roads has promised the money for the bridge, but has not yet “come good with it”.
Their only solid offer, according to Cudgegong Shire Clerk (Mr. Sadgrove) has been to build a single lane, low level timber bridge.
This would be a “pretty silly thing to build”, Mr. Sadgrove said.
He said that in January, 1968, a proposal had been put to the Department for a two-lane concrete bridge, and nothing had been done by the Department since.
However, it is understood the bridge could cost around half a million dollars.
Mr. Sadgrove said the main expense would be in the approaches.
The Macquarie River at that point was steep and almost unapproachable.
A bushfire tail had been taken to the water’s edge in recent years and it was now possible to get to the edge by car, but this was a 15 minute exercise.
If the bridge were constructed, the distance from Mudgee to Orange would be reduced to about 64 miles.
Mr. Sadgrove said the remainder of the road was quite trafficable.
It joined the main road from Orange to Wellington at Mullion Creek.
23 January 1970
Mudgee-Orange road link start to be announced next May
The Department of Main Roads hopes that by next May it will be able to announce a starting date for construction of the road link between Orange and Mudgee.
The Department’s Divisional Engineer at Parkes said the project had not been shelved and was still “under very active consideration.”
For many years Local Government bodies and other organisations have been pressing for action in the move to establish the road link which would reduce the length of the route from Orange to Mudgee (via Wellington) from 120 miles to about 70.
The Divisional Engineer, Mr. H. Waslin, replied this week to queries raised by Mr. R. S. Burns secretary of the Dixon’s Long Point Committee which has been in the forefront of the road link campaign for many years.
Mr. Burns wrote to Cudgegong Shire Council and urged that council to make a strong approach to the authorities concerned asking what action, if any, has been taken.
Cudgegong Shire Council which will share with Canobolas Shire Council the construction of the developmental road both sides of the Macquarie River, has heard nothing.
As Cudgegong Shire Council will also build the bridge over the Macquarie River, it would appreciate some advice of a definite nature to allow proper programming with its works schedule.
The last official advice was received two years ago.
Speaking from Parkes, Mr. Waslin said the proposal had definitely not been shelved as Mr. Burns had suggested.
“In fact it is under very active consideration, and we hope to have some definite solution to our problems by May this year,” he said.
If the necessary funds could be allocated, the whole project could be completed within two years he said.
The construction job was extremely difficult,as the slope up from the river was a good “four-mile pull,” Mr. Waslin said.
The work would be very costly, and could involve hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Mr. Waslin said.
The country was extremely rugged and plunged steeply down from the mountain into the Macquarie Valley.
Canobolas Shire Council had suggested a route down the mountain, and this had been inspected by departmental engineers, geologists and engineers from both Canobolas and Cudgegong Shires.
Intensive survey work had been carried out and this had involved a delay in any sort of definite programming, Mr. Waslin said.
Mr. R. H. Sadgrove, Cudgegong Shire Clerk, said he did not know what type of bridge theDMR wanted constructed.
“At one time they did talk about a low-level single lane timber bridge but we would approve the construction of a two-lane low level concrete bridge,” he said.
“Mr. Burns wrote to us a few weeks ago saying his committee would like us to make some strong representations to the DMR, but we have heard nothing,” Mr. Sadgrove said.
“We made a few telephone calls to the Divisional Engineer at Lithgow and were told that investigations were being made.”
Mr. Sadgrove said it would help his council if he knew in just what year the work would start.
“We want to incorporate the job in our works programme as our bridge-building gang will be constructing the bridge,” he said1
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24 July 1970
Dixon’s - Long Point bridge low level
The proposed bridge at Dixon’s Long Point - the missing link in the Mudgee-Orange Road - seems likely to be a full-width low level bridge, with single-lane approach roads.
Cudgegong Shire Council will tell the Department of Main Roads it considers this type of bridge would be adequate “in the circumstances prevailing.”
It is not yet known when the bridge, which has been “in the melting pot” for years, is likely to be built.
But Cudgegong Shire Engineer Mr. G. H. Smith said yesterday he would not be surprised if finance were made available next year for a low-level structure.
Mr. Smith said he did not believe the Department of Main Roads would be willing to finance a high-level bridge and high-standard approaches.
He said high-standard approach roads could cost $750,000.
“We have to cut our cloth to suit our measure,” he said.
Mr. Smith told this month’s council meeting that an inspection of the site for the proposed bridge had been made in June.
Those present were the Assistant Chief Engineer of the D.M.R. (Mr. Thatcher), the Rural Investigations Engineer (Mr. Playford), the Divisional Engineer, District Engineer and Surveyors from the Parks Division and Central Mountains Division of the D.M.R., and the Shire Engineer and Surveyor from the Canobolas Shire and the Cudgegong Shire.
PURPOSE
The main purpose of the inspection was to ascertain the most suitable location of a bridge and to discuss technical aspects associated with the approach roads.
Mr. Smith said Mr. Playford, the Rural Investigations Engineer, explained that a complete geological survey of the approach roads had been made by the department.
“The results of this survey indicated that the whole of the road formation would have to be cut into solid material as batter support could not be obtained because of the type of material and the excessive natural side-slopes,” he said.
He said for this reason the approach roadways would be required to be constructed to a very low standard because of the excessively high cost involved in the construction of a two-lane roadway to a reasonable design standard.
Mr. Smith said two bridge sites were examined, the first for a high-level bridge and the second for a low-level bridge.
He said Mr. Hatcher, the Assistant Chief Engineer, considered the bridge, irrespective of whether high or low-level, should provide a deck width of 24 feet.
On this basis, the lengths and costs of the alternative bridges were assessed.
The high-level bridge was estimated to cost $180,000 and the low-level $94,000.
“Following the inspection and discussion with the departmental engineers, I am now firmly of the opinion that the Department of Main Roads is considering the project in the light of the limited amount of money for developmental works and roads, and will not make available money for a high-level bridge or for high-standard road approaches,” Mr. Smith said.
:I personally feel that the best that can be expected from the department will be a low-level, full-width bridge, with single-standard approaches,” he said.
“I also consider that if pressure is put on the department for a higher standard, the whole project will be shelved for many years.”
Mr. Smith said should traffic using the road increase to such an extent that higher standard approaches were required in the future, an approach could then be made to the department for a grant to widen and realign the approach roads to the bridge.
“In regard to the bridge, I feel that a full-width, low-level bridge will be quite adequate and any inundation of the structure will not be very frequent and will not last for any lengthy periods,” he said2
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References