State and federal Labor say they will make good on a 21-year-old promise by former premier Bob Carr and build the first stage of the Glendale transport interchange if elected.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Three sitting state Labor MPs, Lake Macquarie candidate Jo Smith and mayor Kay Fraser will gather at Glendale on Tuesday morning to announce a $32 million funding pledge for a Pennant Street railway bridge linking Glendale with Cardiff.
NSW and federal Labor would each tip in $13 million and Lake Macquarie City Council $6 million.
Opposition leader Michael Daley confirmed the funding promise to the Newcastle Herald on Monday.
“This is a project that will bring relief for commuters and provide a big boost to productivity for the Hunter,” Mr Daley said.
The bridge is the first stage of the Lake Macquarie Transport Interchange, which includes a $120 million train station and bus interchange and a realignment of major roads through both suburbs.
The NSW government said in June last year, after about 20 years of planning work, that it would not fund the railway bridge and a business case prepared for the council did not stack up.
The project has been on the agenda since well before former Labor premier Mr Carr committed in 1998 to build the bridge by 2003 for about $33 million.
Numerous Hunter politicians, including independent Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper, and business groups have lobbied for the interchange to go ahead and placed it at the top of their infrastructure wish lists.
In 2010, Wallsend Labor MP Sonia Hornery criticised her party’s failure to fund the project while in power.
The announcement on Tuesday is the latest in a series of funding pledges by both parties before the March 23 election as the Liberal-National Coalition seeks to hold on to majority government in the lower house.
The Coalition has promised another $205 million for Nelson Bay Road and a TAFE "campus" in the marginal seat of Port Stephens, and a $266 million bypass and new local court for Muswellbrook.
The Herald has been told Roads Minister Melinda Pavey will be in Nelson Bay on Tuesday morning to make another major funding announcement.
Labor has matched the Muswellbrook bypass commitment and thrown in another $350 million from state and federal coffers for a Singleton bypass and $14 million for expanding Newcastle Art Gallery.
Meanwhile, Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp says a Labor government will wind back spot-rezoning laws.
The rules, which the government introduced in 2012, allow developers to bypass councils and seek site-specific changes to height limits and other planning barriers.
They created controversy in 2014 when the GPT-UrbanGrowth mall redevelopment included new heights up to 20 storeys before the developers backed down.