Long-awaited studies into traffic bottlenecks at the entry points to both Katoomba and Springwood have been completed but there is no sign of any work to alleviate conditions.
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Traffic is frequently blocked around the highway and Yeaman Bridge at Katoomba, and in Springwood lines of cars build up in both Hawkesbury and Macquarie roads.
The traffic studies were announced shortly before the 2015 state election by then Blue Mountains MP, Roza Sage. Funding finally came through in December 2017, when the Roads and Maritime Service (now part of Transport for NSW) gave council $100,000 to investigate.
Council at the time said the studies would begin in February, 2018, and be completed by June that year.
At the end of 2018, council and the RMS were at loggerheads over why the studies were not finished, RMS saying it needed updated documents, council saying it had provided the information.
In November 2019, the Gazette applied to see the plans under freedom of information laws, a request denied by council staff who had been advised "that the studies requested are yet to be completed".
They have now been finished but will not be released because they were "developed by council for TfNSW for the purposes of traffic modelling, not for the purposes of public consultation", a council spokeswoman said.
The Gazette has been attempting to find out who must now act to get some work in the pipeline.
The council spokeswoman said: "The Great Western Highway remains a TfNSW asset. Council will continue to advocate to TfNSW to improve traffic conditions at the intersections in Katoomba and Springwood."
A TfNSW spokeswoman said: "Blue Mountains Council has not applied for any further funding from Transport for NSW to carry out road work on the entrances to Katoomba and Springwood."
The mayor, Mark Greenhill, called on TfNSW to act.
"The state government promised action in 2015. The highway and Yeaman Bridge belong to the state government. It is not for us to apply for a grant over their highway or their bridge."
He said the government had not delivered on its promise.
"Council undertook studies to inform safety and congestion at the Katoomba and Springwood intersections of the GWH. TfNSW now has this information.
"I will ask for councillors to be briefed on this work and then I will ask that we provide this information to the Blue Mountains Gazette," Cr Greenhill said.
Blue Mountains MP, Trish Doyle, said: "The NSW Government made an election commitment eons ago for a traffic congestion study to look at options to improve the entrances to both Katoomba and Springwood. It is understandable for the community to expect that the study would eventually lead to outcomes, but that just isn't what is happening.
"The Berejiklian Government should re-engage on the issue of traffic congestion at these two points, and stop pretending like it isn't theirs to deal with."
