Seven million dollars will be spent widening the New England Highway at Rutherford if the state’s electricity assets are privatised, Premier Mike Baird says.
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He has committed to spend $273 million on road upgrades in the Hunter if the government is re-elected and given a mandate to lease 49 per cent of state-owned power poles and wires.
Two extra lanes would be added to the New England Highway, between Racecourse Road and Anambah Road, as part of the commitment.
Mr Baird made the announcement on Tuesday at Lovedale.
“We’re investing significantly in local roads across the Hunter,” he said.
“The announcement today is focusing on pinch points, predominantly away from Newcastle, across the Hunter region.
“For a long time, communities have wanted these upgrades to come. The good news is we’ve found a capacity to deliver them and, obviously, if we win the election that’s exactly what will happen.”
The government also announced money would be used to improve various roads in Newcastle, Highfields, Broadmeadow, Mayfield, Singleton and Warners Bay.
Opposition Leader Luke Foley said the funding announcement was an attempt to blackmail the electorate into supporting the 99-year lease of electricity assets.
“Today he says he’ll upgrade roads in the Hunter,” he said.
“It’s just a policy of blackmail. Labor will release, early in the campaign, a fully costed state infrastructure policy that will tell people what projects we commit to.
“It will be costed and funded. It will say how we’ll pay for it. But we won’t pay for the upgrades of roads and essential infrastructure by selling off our electricity assets.”
Mr Baird visited the Hunter yesterday for whirlwind tour of the region that involved engagements in Lovedale, Maitland and Newcastle.
He visited the refurbished Roads and Maritime Services office at Green Hills to officially open the new one-stop-shop facility.
His appearance came on the day that reports emerged in Fairfax Media that the Premier’s Department had ignored a Transport for NSW recommendation for the preferred light rail route through Newcastle in favour of a route that was slower, about $100 million more expensive and provided more development opportunities along the rail corridor.
