New traffic lights on at busy Tamworth intersection

The Manilla Road (Peel Street) upgrade at North Tamworth has reached a major milestone with new traffic lights at the busy Jewry Street intersection switched on.

Roads and Maritime Services engaged Tamworth Regional Council to carry out work on the $6 million project, funded by the NSW Government.

Tamworth Region Mayor Col Murray said it's great to see the major project completed.

"It will dramatically improve traffic flows and safety for the the 14,000 drivers who use this intersection daily," he said. "Council's construction crews are to be congratulated for a job finished several weeks ahead of schedule and on budget for RMS and the State Government."

"I'm sure that is largely due to their decvision to run shifts around the close for two months of the five-month project."

State Member for Tamworth, Kevin Anderson, said the intersection has been a traffic pinch point for some time and to see it finished is a great relief to the 14,000 motorists who use this section of road daily.

“The project included removing two roundabouts at the Jewry street intersection and installing new traffic lights, new pavement, including a pedestrian crossing to make it even safer and it will deliver faster and safer travel times.

“This has been a fantastic NSW Government project that started two kilometres away at the intersection of Yarmouth Parade and Manilla Road in 2011 and worked its way to Jewry Street."

Cr Murray said construction works progressed particularly well considering the complexity of the project and the volume of traffic continuing to use the intersection. "Something like two million cars have driven through while the work has been in progress and there was not one significant traffic accident - that's simply outstanding," he said.

Mr Anderson agreed. “I want to thank Tamworth Regional Council, their engineers and staff who have worked on this project, and still managed to keep the traffic flowing during the construction period," he said.

“While the work to upgrade Manilla Road was being planned it was a great opportunity to also duplicate the Jewry Street bridge at the same time and I want to thank the Federal Government for that $3.5 million in funding. It completes the intersection and makes it a lot safer separating the traffic on the bridges."

Cr Murray said the intersection and the surrounding road precinct has been transformed.

"This NSW Government-funded upgrade - along with the new second bridge over the Peel River in Jewry Street funded by the Australian Government thanks to our local Member for New England Barnaby Joyce - gives us the biggest single improvement to traffic flows for Tamworth's road network in almost 50 years," he said.

Since 2011 the NSW Government has invested more than $20 million to improve Manilla Road, ensuring it meets the growing demands of locals and the freight industry.

Now the traffic lights are on, Council will remove the traffic control signs at the intersection.

Some finishing off tasks are yet to be carried out. 

Installation of traffic barriers on the new bridge for vehicles travelling from Manilla and turning right to Taminda will be installed during nightworks starting on Monday and will take about 10 days to complete.

The final asphalt overlay will be installed during nightworks once the weather warms up, possibly as late as September. A polymer modified binder added to the asphalt mix to enhance the performance on heavily trafficked areas can only been applied with the temperature is no less than 15 degrees Celsius.

Drivers are asked to take extra care when using the intersection while they become familiar with the lane set up for the new traffic lights.