A Shorten Labor Government would provide $50 million to deliver further upgrades to Appin Road.

Appin Road is becoming even busier due to the growing economic and social links between the South West Sydney region and the Illawarra.  Increasingly, this traffic is comprised of heavy vehicles.

Around 30,000 people travel from the Illawarra to Sydney for work each day. Of those some 10,000 travel to South West and Western Sydney and this number is growing, with Appin, Picton, Campbelltown, Minto and Camden becoming major destinations for those travelling west.

Between 2012 and 2016, there have been more than 50 crashes along Appin Road, a number of which involved heavy vehicles.

The funding could be used for lane widening, shoulder widening, additional lanes and safety upgrades, with the final package of works to be guided by the planning work being undertaken by the NSW Government.

In addition, a further $5 million would be used to construct a “Sky Bridge”, or fauna overpass, over Appin Road.  This would enable Campbelltown’s unique koala colony to continue to thrive, facilitating their movement between different habitats.

The local Macarthur community is witnessing a growing number of koalas being killed on Appin Road as they attempt to cross this major road.  A Sky Bridge would help preserve and protect this thriving colony.

During six years of cuts and chaos, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has ignored the infrastructure needs of the Illawarra and South-West Sydney.