Image: manurivero/Shutterstock
Traffic nightmares in Hobart yesterday due to a truck rollover on the Tasman Bridge is igniting conversations about solutions talked about for years.
A bypass around central Hobart is one of many ideas that never seems to see the light of day.
Clark Independent Kristie Johnston doesn’t accept the state government’s excuse that the rail renewal is too costly.
“Commuters sat in absolute gridlock, it should be a total embarrassment to the state government, they are simply failing to address traffic congestion issues and also embrace the opportunities that light rail presents in housing development and job opportunities.”
In 2019, then Infrastructure Minister Jeremy Rockliff detailed multi million dollar initiatives such as a real time traffic management system and incident response tow trucks to clear crashes.
Hobart Councillor Ryan Posselt concedes the answers are a work in progress.
“We work closely with the state government and the federal government to get the best outcomes that we can at the council level and a great example is the $20 million that the Greater Hobart councils secured for the ferries from the federal government.”
Southern District Police Commander Tim Dooley explains the bridge being entirely closed in Hobart is unusual.
“In the process of righting the truck trailer and the container, the container became unstable and lost the contents onto the road which necessitated a clean up of the road and that was ceramic material from tiles.”
