THE Mitchell Shire Council have made their clearest statement yet that the Kilmore bypass is needed following a notice of motion passing unanimously aiming to keep Sydney Street traffic weight limits low.
Councillor Bob Humm raised the notice of motion, saying he had major concerns over the state of historic buildings suffering from vibrations from large trucks passing through the town.
“Let’s make sure it doesn’t get any heavier than what it currently is, and I think the state government should stop follying around and get round and build that bypass. Sooner or later, some of those older buildings in Kilmore may unfortunately fall into the street and I’d really wonder who would be the one paying the bill when that happens,” he said.
“There’s no other way for some of those heavy vehicles to get around the township at this stage that I can see without causing a lot more damage to council’s infrastructure.”
Councillor Nathan Clark said it was a sensible approach to limit traffic on Sydney Street.
“It makes sense, when you’re on the down slope there, you can imagine the vibrations and the weight and this sort of stuff, we would end up with some sort of structural problems happening there, and some landowners and shop owners in the main strip there have raised that issue with me as well,” he said.
“The obvious solution is to put in the Kilmore bypass. We have a shopping list here, we’ve done the public acquisition overlay, we know where the roundabouts are going to go, the state government funded in principal the roundabout at the southern end of town, we’re ready to go, we just need the state to stump up the funds for the project and DTP get organised and get digging.”
Councillor Andrea Pace said: “Kilmore can absolutely be this quaint little town full of historic buildings, little shopping expeditions … but you have these big, thundering trucks coming down the middle of the street – a very narrow street,” she said.
“It is unsafe to cross the road, it is unsafe to walk past buildings when you don’t know if bits are going to fall off them because of the trucks. It just spoils the whole area. We need this bypass done so we can get our little town back.”
The notice of motion was passed unanimously.
