Roads and Ports Minister Duncan Gay today released the state’s first Freight and Ports Strategy – a plan to help manage the near-doubling of freight volumes in New South Wales over the next 20 years.
“With the volume of freight on our transport network forecast to nearly double over the next 20 years to 800 million tonnes each year, the NSW Freight and Ports Strategy is a critical long-term road map which puts NSW on the front foot to meet the task ahead,” Minister Gay said.
The release coincides with the announcement of funds to kick start the ‘Fixing Country Roads’ program targeted at local road works to improve road freight productivity and connectivity in regional NSW.
The first $1.5 million of the ‘Fixing Country Roads’ program will allow Forbes Shire Council to improve Higher Productivity Vehicle access to the GrainCorp Red Bend silos from the Newell Highway. It will be supported by $400,000 in contributions from the Forbes Shire Council and will complement $800,000 of future works within the silo facility by GrainCorp.
The Red Bend silos are a major intermodal terminal for grain, processing on average 60,000 tonnes of grain each year from surrounding farms across the Central West. Currently, only smaller combinations of heavy vehicles can access the site from the Newell Highway, leading to inefficiencies through increased trips and running costs.
“More movements of grain trucks result in added ‘wear and tear’ on state and council roads, bridges and culverts – providing greater access to modern road trains and B-doubles helps to reduce this problem,” Minister Gay said.
Another $850,000 will enable Narromine Shire Council to upgrade local intersections, an investment allowing Higher Productivity Vehicles to travel more safely and seamlessly through the Central West, helping boost economic growth in the region.
Minister Gay said ‘Fixing Country Roads’ is about partnering with local councils and industry to identify important infrastructure upgrades needed on local roads, allowing country communities to be better connected to the state road network.
“A strong regional economy equates to a strong NSW economy and we’re committed to supporting regional infrastructure projects that help deliver goods faster and more efficiently to market.”
Minister Gay said a great deal of work had already commenced under the NSW Freight and Ports Strategy.
“The past two years had been a pivotal time for logistics in NSW,” he said.
Important recent NSW Government achievements for freight include:
A commitment of $10 million for six new overtaking lanes on the Newell Highway, with the NSW and Federal governments allocating an additional $10 million for a further six overtaking lanes in 2013-14 (i.e. $20 million for a dozen new overtaking lanes). This program of works was driven by council members of the Newell Highway Task Force, including Parkes, Forbes, Dubbo, Warrumbungle, Bland and Narrabri and also forms part of national heavy vehicle productivity reforms.
NSW Government commitment of $145 million for ‘Bridges for the Bush’. This works program involves upgrading or replacing 17 key bridges in regional NSW to improve road freight productivity, including a number of high priority Higher Mass Limit (HML) deficient bridges at Kapooka, Gunnedah and Tulladunna (near Wee Waa).
Commitment to spend $277 million on maintenance and upgrade works to the state’s 996 kilometres of grain rail lines between 2012-13 and 2016-17. Already, 189,000 old timber sleepers have been replaced with modern long-life steel sleepers; 972 kilometres of track have been resurfaced; and 46 new low maintenance bridges have been constructed.
In partnership with more than 45 regional councils and industry groups such as the Livestock and Bulk Carriers Association of NSW and NSW Farmers Association, delivered a new Grain Harvest Management Scheme to improve productivity and promote efficiency by allowing grain trucks to carry an extra five per cent over General Mass Limits (GML) during the harvest season.
Delivered a new Livestock Loading Scheme comparable to schemes in neighbouring states.
Established a Bureau of Freight Statistics, providing government and industry with a single reliable source of data for decision-making in freight infrastructure.
Creation of a NSW Cargo Movement Coordination Centre, to commence in early 2014, to build on the success of the Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy (PBLIS). This essential initiative will help NSW meet the target of doubling the proportion of container freight movement by rail through NSW ports by 2020.
Developing a Strategic Noise Action Plan to address and manage freight rail noise to reduce noise at its source, minimise the impact of freight rail noise and implement development controls for land adjacent to new and existing rail corridors and facilities.
Signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Central West regional councils of Blayney, Cowra, Harden, Weddin and Young to test commercial interest in recommissioning 200 kilometres of rail line between Blayney and Demondrille, known as the Cowra Lines.
More than 409 million tonnes of freight moves through NSW every year, contributing around $58 billion to the state’s economy.
The NSW Freight and Ports Strategy aims to improve freight transport network efficiency and plan for the expansion of NSW ports, roads and rail network to cater for growth, while balancing the needs of the community and environment.
“With an efficient and effective freight network underpinning the strength of our exports and reducing the costs of everyday goods and services, the strategy will ensure that freight is at the forefront of our economy,” said Minister Gay.
The strategy was finalised following extensive consultation with local government and industry (including expert advice from the NSW Freight Advisory Council chaired by Ron Finemore AO) and was bolstered to address key issues raised during consultation including regional road freight productivity, coastal shipping and infrastructure funding.
Transport for NSW received more 80 submissions in response to the release of the draft NSW Freight and Ports Strategy in November 2012.
“The NSW Freight and Ports Strategy is an important milestone for NSW. It shows the NSW Government is taking seriously the freight and logistics industry – which employs half a million people in NSW,” Minister Gay said.
Source:- Transport NSW
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