On 8 October 2020 it was announced that funding of $3.6 million has been secured in partnership with the State and Federal Governments as part of the Covid-19 stimulus Road Safety Program to fast-track the upgrade of the worse sections of the Currarong Road. Shoalhaven City Council will also provide $1.0 million towards this and will manage the project.

Planned work involves a widened centre line, shoulder widening and profile line marking along a 4.2 km stretch of the road starting near the Lighthouse Road turn-off.

In a media release South Coast MP Shelley Hancock said:

“Given its poor safety record, Currarong Road is in need of an urgent upgrade. Residents of Currarong deserve better, with the current road a narrow two-lane, undivided, undulating and high-speed rural road – the only access for residents in and out of the village”.

Importantly this upgrade is being fast tracked with the work taking place in this financial year. We are told that the tender will be awarded to private contractors in early 2021 and the work commencing shortly after.

The Currarong Community Association has long highlighted the degraded state of the road with no shoulders and in parts less than 5 metres wide.We have lobbied Council, State and Federal Governments to fix this as the road is unsafe at a time when we are experiencing more and more traffic. For instance a road counter was installed for 21 days from 17 Dec 2018 and recorded 57,729 vehicles using the road, including 6,212 heavy vehicles.

We thank our local State and Federal MP’s Shelley Hancock and Fiona Phillips who both made statements in Parliament concerning the state of our road, and thank Shoalhaven City Council for providing part funding and support.

Most importantly we thank all those in our community for their support over many years and look forward to the work being completed quickly, safely and effectively.

 

Committee

Currarong Community Association

Road media release by Shelly Hancock