Background

In April 2010 the Minister for Transport and Roads announced that Roads and Maritime Services (formerly Roads and Traffic Authority) would review all the issues highlighted by the Grafton community during the initial stage of consultation. As a result, an issues paper was prepared. The Minister also announced that residents should have input into the consultation forums and asked Roads and Maritime Services (formerly Roads and Traffic Authority) to prepare a community liaison plan and seek community feedback.

In August 2010 two community focus groups were conducted to discuss and provide feedback on the community liaison plan. The community requested that further opportunities for consultation be developed to enable the community to have input, including a survey. The focus group also asked that the study area be expanded to consider other route options proposed by the community.

In September 2010 the Clarence Valley Council wrote to Roads and Maritime Services (formerly Roads and Traffic Authority) and the Minister for Roads in support of a community survey to enable the local community to have their say on the location of the new Summerland Way/ Grafton Bridge. Council also supported the view that route options outside the existing study area should be considered.

In December 2010 Roads and Maritime Services (formerly Roads and Traffic Authority) released a community update which announced a new consultation process for the project. The community update included an initial community survey and advised that a phone survey would be conducted early in 2011 to gather further feedback.

Community liaison plan (December 2010)

This updated community liaison plan describes how the project team, (Roads and Maritime Services (formerly Roads and Traffic Authority), consultant Arup and technical specialists) will engage with the community to assist with the identification of a preferred option for the crossing of the Clarence River at Grafton. Community input, along with information from the technical and environmental studies, will assist the project team undertaking the assessment process to determine firstly the short list of options and then the preferred option. See the project documents page for more information.

Community surveys

Three community surveys have been undertaken recently to gauge the views of local residents and businesses regarding the additional crossing of the Clarence River at Grafton.

The December 2010 community update included a postal survey that asked the community for their feedback about a second crossing of the Clarence River. The postal survey invited the community to respond to some questions and indicate any additional areas that they would like to have considered. The report is available on the project documents page.

A telephone survey involving 514 randomly selected local residents and regular bridge users was undertaken in March 2011. The report is available on the project documents page.

To support the residential telephone survey, a separate business survey was also undertaken. The business survey was an online survey to give all local businesses the opportunity to participate.  The report is available on the project documents page.