‘Major failure’: Key Blue Mountains highway to be closed for at least three months

The key highway across the Blue Mountains will be closed for at least three months after investigations uncovered a “major geotechnical failure”, triggering a potential economic calamity for residents in the state’s west.

Dashing hopes that last weekend’s closure of Great Western Highway may have been temporary, Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison on Friday revealed damage to a 200-year-old stone causeway at Victoria Pass was more serious than initially feared.

“I’ll be honest and upfront to the people of the Blue Mountains and the Central West: this closure is expected to remain in place for at least three months – it is incredibly serious,” Aitchison said.

“I understand that this is difficult news, but people deserve honesty and they deserve clarity. This is not a short-term repair job. We are dealing with a major geotechnical failure on a fragile and historic section of road, and it must be assessed and repaired properly.”

The three-month closure is considered within government as the most optimistic scenario, while transport planners and local MPs believe the true closure time will be much longer. The government will also face pressure to compensate affected businesses.

The road, the state’s major east-west link, was closed in both directions on Sunday after cracks appeared on the surface of a stone causeway built by convicts in 1832.

The closure has infuriated hundreds of thousands of residents who live west of Sydney in towns and cities like Lithgow, Bathurst, Orange and Dubbo – they have long complained about the state of the narrow, steep and unreliable route.

With 12,000 vehicles using the road every day, the prolonged blockage will affect delivery times and the cost of produce from the region to Sydney. About half of the freight that goes over the mountains each year is via road, including about 900,000 tonnes of food and vast quantities of petrol.

Chloe Tofler, the co-founder of Little Hartley shop The Lolly Bug, said her business could possibly withstand a three-month closure but she was fearful the closure would be much longer.

She said there needed to be a discussion about compensation from the government.

“This part of the highway has become a dead end and we will need help.”

The Herald featured Tofler in an article on Thursday and she said the media coverage had triggered a very positive response.

“There has been a huge amount of orders online since people became aware of what has happened to us, and that is so amazing. It shows you how good people can be when times are tough.”

Traffic will be diverted at Lithgow along Main Street, Chifley Road and the Darling Causeway before rejoining the highway at Mount Victoria, adding at least one hour to a return journey.

The Darling Causeway is a narrow, two-lane road that is subject to frequent closures. Scenic Hill, about three-kilometres east of Lithgow, is a steep incline that trucks often struggle to climb.

The government is working to boost the number of train services between Bathurst and Mount Victoria, and two coaches will run 12 daily free services between Bathurst and Katoomba.

Transport for NSW deputy secretary Matt Fuller said Victoria Pass was a “complex site with a unique heritage structure”.

“The level of movement detected means we need time without traffic to fully understand the risks and determine the safest solution,” he said.

The former state Coalition government spent years and millions of dollars studying how to fix the road and decided the best option was twin 11- kilometre tunnels between Little Hartley and Blackheath. The tunnel would have traversed some 200 metres below the surface of the now-closed causeway.

The project was not fully funded and there were doubts within the government over whether it could have been achieved. The then-newly installed Minns government and Albanese federal government eventually ditched it.

Matthew Irvine, the president of the Western NSW Business Advisory Council and chair of the Western NSW Health Board, said the failure of Convict Bridge was “inevitable”.

“None of this is news to anyone who has used that road and knows how bad it is.”

Irvine said the impact of the closure would extend beyond economics. “This is a whole of society thing. There’s going to need to be a big conversation around rescue packages for businesses that will be hit hard. And the number of people who commute to Sydney on a weekly basis for medical treatment is very, very large.”

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