Jodi McKay renews call for Heathcote Road bridge election promise to be kept

Opposition Leader Jodi McKay visited the area again this month, calling on the government to honour the commitment made by Heathcote MP Lee Evans at the 2019 election.

Despite the promise - which Mr Evans says was based on 'misleading' information from transport bureaucrats - the government is pressing ahead with a proposal to widen the bridge while retaining only one lane in each direction.

Work is due to start late this year.

Ms McKay's latest visit preceded the release of new figures revealing there has been an average of one fatality a year on Heathcote Road over the last 23 years.

Ms McKay, Labor roads spokesman John Graham and Mark Buttigieg MLC, the party's spokesman for the Heathcote electorate, met with retired police officer Barry Hayston, of Engadine.

The former long-serving highway patrol officer and traffic coordinator for St George and Sutherland police, told the Leader last year the bridge should have been duplicated decades ago.

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Mr Hayston, who attended and investigated at least 12 fatal crashes on Heathcote Road, a number of which occurred on the two-lane bridge, said he had lobbied unsuccessfully for the structure to be duplicated.

Ms McKay said in a statement, "The government and the local member Lee Evans have let down this community by failing to deliver on its promise".

"Widening the road is not what the locals want.

"They want a four-lane bridge to improve safety on this dangerous road."

Mr Graham said: "What the Government is delivering is woefully inadequate".

"It has been estimated that over 36,000 people travel on the road each day and it will only get busier.

"In the 2020-21 NSW Budget, the Government put $44m in planning money towards duplicating the bridge but they are pushing on with widening, not duplicating it.

"At the same time, they acknowledge more needs to be done, saying they will also look at investigating the long term feasibility of duplication."

Labor is not saying at this stage what it will do about Heathcote Road if it wins the next election in 2023.