A bypass to remove heavy vehicle traffic from the city’s streets could cost more than it’s worth, the City of Launceston believes.
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Last week Chamber of Commerce executive Jan Davis called for the community to plan how it would address the volumes of trucks traversing the city.
She raised the possibility of constructing a ring road around the city and building an additional river crossing for heavy vehicles.
The idea for a city bypass is not a new one.
"The City of Launceston previously included an eastern bypass option as a major priority project in its transport strategies; this was at a time when there was significant timber freight truck traffic passing through the city at high volumes,” general manager Robert Dobrzynski said.
But assessments made by the Department of State Growth indicated the number of trucks now using the council's main road network had reduced significantly in the Launceston municipality.
Mr Dobrzynski also questioned the benefit of building the bypass.
"The significant cost of an eastern bypass, estimated at more than $250 million, including a number of bridge constructions, has placed into question the cost benefit ratio for such a project compared to other competing road projects across the nation,” he said.
"Any project of the magnitude of a heavy vehicle bypass would require significant state and federal government funding.”
But Mr Dobrzynski said the work to improve traffic flow was an ongoing operation.
"The City of Launceston is currently undertaking a major exercise to gain better data on origin and destination of all vehicles using the road network in order to plan appropriately for the future, in the wake of our extensive work in this area in 2014 and 2015 in the development and adoption of the Launceston Transport Futures strategy and its component parts,” he said.
"While the ultimate aim is to remove heavy vehicles from Cimitiere Street, the attendant high cost of building a heavy vehicle bypass makes this a prohibitive option which would require state and federal government support to have any prospects of success.
"There are, however, other ways in which the City of Launceston can work with other road authorities and users to more effectively invest in and utilise the existing road network."