MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CATHERINE KING: It’s great to be back here. I was here in August, and just to see the progress, first they cut the tunnels through, and now we’re seeing the fit-out, it’s well and truly underway. The fire services system, the emergency management system, air extraction system, lighting, all of the electrics going into place – it’s a really complex project, and each of the tunnels alongside the Coffs Harbour Bypass, that work is underway. And again, I just want to say thank you to the terrific workforce who are here. This is a great project for the region, a terrific project to be involved in. I know, each time I come, just how proud the workers are here of the work that they’re doing. It is a magnificent project, and looking forward to seeing and being able to be able to drive through this tunnel during the Christmas holidays, 2026, the year that we are now in. An important project for the region.

We know the $2.2 billion that has been invested alongside both the Albanese Labor Government and the Minns Labor Government really is game-changing for this region. But it’s not only just for this region. With the work that we’re also doing down the other end, on the M1 to Raymond Terrace, that in fact, you will be able to drive from the Victorian border to the Queensland border with no traffic lights at all. And that is a big deal, not just for people who are driving through this wonderful part of the world, but importantly, for our freight network. Being able to take time out of that freight network, being able to see our heavy vehicles move through these three terrific, important states to our economy in a much more efficient and safer way is really what this is all about, is trying to make sure that those heavy-vehicle freight networks that bring produce from our farmers to your table, that they are able to do that safely.

This project, again, is a really significant one. It’s a significant one for the New South Wales Government and the Federal Government to be working together in partnership. It does make up one of the many billions of dollars of projects we’re co investing in in the state of NSW. And again, I thank Minister Aitchison. She’s a great partner to have to co-invest in these extremely important projects for the region.

Minister Aitchison.

NSW MINISTER FOR ROADS AND REGIONAL TRANSPORT JENNY AITCHISON: Thanks, Catherine. It’s great to be here at Coffs Harbour in one of three tunnels. We’ve got the important safety work being done on the operation of the tunnel. So that’s the fire safety, the lighting, electricals, all of that work, the fans. So we will ensure that these tunnels operate the best way. We’ve had some really great conversations with the workforce today around what they’re doing to ensure that this is part of the broader NSW network, and that it’s state-of-the-art safety and management systems to ensure that you know when there are incidents happening in these tunnels, they can be responded to quickly and people are safe. It’s most important to us.

This is a game-changing project for our state. As Minister King has said, we will be able to get from Victoria to Queensland without traffic lights with the completion of this project and the M1 to Raymond Terrace – two of the probably hardest projects, save the best to last, but really important, because they do not only help our state economy and freight, but for towns like Coffs Harbour, it will really reduce congestion. We know that tourism operators, moteliers, all of the people who live and work around Coffs Harbour, the bottlenecks that happen during those peak travel times are a break on business. By having that through traffic able to get out and through very quickly, it will mean that it will be able to draw back tourists and people who want to ensure that beautiful regional liveability and have that lifestyle close to the beach, close to this glorious Hinterland, and to have the safety.

As Minister King says, we work very closely together in NSW with the Minns Labor Government and with her government, the Albanese Government. I want to pay a special thank you to Minister King. This project is some 26 years in the making. When we were in government in NSW previously, we had designs for this project already ready to go, concept designs there. It stayed on the shelf for 12 long years, and it was only in the dying days of the last government, with the massive injection of 80 per cent of the funding from the Albanese Labor Government, championed by Minister King, that we were able to get both this project and M1 to Raymond Terrace done.

What’s this going to mean for people in Coffs Harbour? What’s it going to mean for people going through this area is 12 traffic lights gone, 12,000 cars out of the main street of Coffs Harbour, 14-kilometre alignment. It’s a massive project, 21 bridges, three tunnels. It’s a testament to the expertise, the dedication, and the hard work of workers in our construction industry who have worked so hard to get this delivered, and the fact that it stayed on time, that it’s getting done before Christmas. Coffs Harbour residents will be very pleased. They’ve had their last Christmas with that congestion. We will get this tunnel open for them next Christmas and this road network. And it’s a great day for everyone in NSW, and everyone really on the Eastern Seaboard. So thanks, Minister King.

KING: Questions?

JOURNALIST: We’re talking about new technology. I mean, these fans and things like that, talk to us about the importance of those.

AITCHISON: Look, the fans are really important if there is a fire in the tunnel. They’re actually called, very aptly for Coffs Harbour, banana fans because they’re slightly bent, which means that they funnel the air through the tunnels in an emergency very quickly. So you can feel the air flow through the tunnel right now. They’re very good on that on a normal day, but if there’s an incident, these will operate really quickly.

There’s also, in the cabling, state-of-the-art detectors that ensure that if there is heat and it starts to look like there’s a fire, it can be reported very quickly to our incident management centres. It’s something we’re using up north at Tugun in our tunnels there, and of course, that all goes back to the Transport Management Centre in Sydney. We’ve got some incredible work. We just upgraded the Transport Management Centre in Sydney last year, and that really has changed the way that we’re able to manage these tunnels and significant parts of the network remotely to the safety of everyone.

JOURNALIST: Were these always part of the plan, or have they sort of come along as the project’s progressed and technologies progressed and things like that?

JENNY AITCHISON: Look, I think, with Coffs Harbour, the understanding that we needed to transport very heavy freight and special dangerous freight meant that we had to have important work in fire safety. And it’s my understanding that’s always been part of the design, knowing the special circumstances here that we’ve had to deal with. But happy to be corrected by any of the technicians that can come back to you on that.

Anyone else?

JOURNALIST: Was there any change in legislation with the dangerous goods, or is that going to stay as is as far as the trucks are concerned?

AITCHISON: Look, we are working, obviously, on all of that to make sure that we do get the right solution. We want to make sure that everyone is safe. But also, it’s no point having a diversion, a bypass, which doesn’t actually work. I think back to when I was a tour operator, to be- to even think that we could do a bypass of Coffs Harbour because of that constraint of the sea and Hinterland, we had to go to tunnelling. So there has been conversations about that. They will progress and go forward.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask about the timeline?

NASH: Okay, what’s your question?

JOURNALIST: So can you talk us through the timeline remaining and how we’re sticking, how close we are to the original timeline?

NASH: Yes, so our target is to actually open to traffic by the end of this year. So we’ve still got- that’s still tracking well. We’ve got a number of milestones which we track through month on month on the project and we’re actually achieving all those milestones. So we’re still tracking, we’re still working very hard to ensure that that’s going to happen and we’ll continue to focus on that. When we finish opening to traffic, when we move the traffic onto the bypass, we still need to come back on the northern area and complete some finishing works, and that’ll be in 2027.

JOURNALIST: What have we got left to do in the tunnels until, I guess, they’re finished, and then what would the next sort of steps be?

NASH: Might actually throw that out to Jesse, if that’s OK?He can take you through some of the technical details.

JOURNALIST: And Jesse, if you could introduce yourself at the start.

JESSE MARRIOTT: Yeah Sure. My name’s Jesse Marriott. I’m the Tunnel Technical Lead for Transport for NSW on the Coffs Harbour Bypass.

JOURNALIST: Fabulous. What’s left to do here?

MARRIOTT: So at the moment, as you can see, we’ve got the pavement down. We’ve got the jet fans installed, we’ve got a majority of the cable containment installed. There is a lot of cable pulling to do to connect all the electrical devices, the lights, the jet fans, the electronic signs to be installed. We also have PA speakers, the architectural panels to give us some light reflectance but also keep the driver focus on the roadway. Beyond the physical scope, there is a lot of testing and commissioning. It’s quite an onerous process and that will continue up until the day of opening completion.

JOURNALIST: In terms of this tunnel, is this the most progressed or are the other ones further along, are they all sort of tracking about the same?

MARRIOTT: Correct. Gatelys Road Tunnel is the most progressed. We started excavation here so naturally the fit-out works are more progressed than the other tunnels. The other tunnels, Shepherd’s Lane and Roberts Hill are not far behind, and the actual physical work completion will be within a month of each other and that’s because of the length of tunnels. This is obviously the longest tunnel.

JOURNALIST: In terms of the overall project, I don’t know if this is a Greg question or even the Minister’s, how far along would we say we are percentage-wise overall?

MARRIOTT: Percentage-wise, we would say, I would say 85% of our way through the programme, 85%.

JOURNALIST: And again, outside the tunnels, what do we do after this stuff for the rest of the route? Because we’ve got- there’s still more panelling to go on out- down here, Englands Road and things like that?

MARRIOTT: That’s right. So we’ve still got a lot of noise walls to install. For the pavement, a majority of the pavement is complete, but we put on other asphalt called wearing course, line marking. A lot of the road furniture has to be installed and then, as I was referring to before, there’s an extensive testing and commissioning programme where we make sure all the devices, that is boom gates, over-height detection, the variable message signs, all talk to each other.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, just a question. Is there anything you can tell us about the quantity of materials or anything that can be used like that?

MARRIOTT: Andy’s more across the physical numbers.

ANDY MCGRATH: You can have a go.

MARRIOTT: So I’ll invite Andy McGrath, the tunnel manager, to speak on the quantity.

MCGRATH: So the quantity of stone and cutting and all of that sort of thing –

JOURNALIST: Come close to the microphone to give us your first and surname and job title please.

MCGRATH: Yep, so Andy McGrath is my name. So I’m tunnel project manager for the joint venture side. So yeah, as everyone’s been saying, we’re in Gatelys tunnels, that’s the biggest we’ve got. It’s 420 metres in length. I guess the section that you can see at the moment, it’s all the final lining here. We’ve put in about 20,000 cubic metres across the three tunnels that we’ve got here. So each of those is about a five cubic metre truckload. So there’s plenty of different truck deliveries that have come in here. I guess other key items you can see, again, the architectural panels coming in. So it’s about 1500 posts of those that will go across the three tunnels and then each of those will have different panels put along the way. Some will help you find the emergency exits and outside, on the project, we’ve actually got some local Aboriginal art which will decorate a few of those as well.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, question on the budget, are we on budget? You mentioned that we are on time.

AITCHISON: Yep, so look we are on budget, $2.2 billion. One of our real commitments when we’ve come to Government has been to really ensure that these projects get done in a timely manner but also to the budget. I really want to give a big shout out to this team particularly because if you think back just time last year, we were kind of natural disaster in this area, right up and down the north coast every two weeks, essentially. So for them to be able to be continuing in that is a real testament to them. I know during the design and construction of this, there’s been innovations and certainly a lot of conversations with community around making it better and making it more amenable for the local community. So it has been challenging but I’m really incredibly happy and proud that the team has managed to keep it on budget.

JOURNALIST: And a lot of workers, obviously we’ve touched on that before but there’s a lot of jobs created from this.

KING: There’s 60 in this tunnel just today alone.

AITCHISON: Yeah, so look- yeah, this is a project which has created thousands of jobs for Coffs Harbour not just within the actual project itself, with our partners for Ferrovial and Gamuda but also in the joint venture, but also in the contractors that have been working on site as well. That’s been an important part of the project as well.

KING: I’ll chime in just at the end there. So with 10 months to opening you can see there is a huge amount of activity underway. Again I’m just so proud of the work this workforce has done. This is an incredibly complex engineering project. One of the things you may not noticed when you came down the other end, but which Andy is really proud, is this beautiful way in which the rock face is going to be recreated at the front of these tunnels and the way in which the framing of the tunnels is done. They’ve done the first one down the end. So when you come back next time, look forward to having a look at how this really blends in with the beautiful environment of Coffs Harbour, giving Coffs back in the main street for tourism, for recreation and really having that ability to have your own place in Coffs Harbour, your own hometown back whilst traffic is taken off, heavy vehicles are taken off, but really blending this in with the environment. And I know looking forward to seeing that work done. Thanks everyone for having us.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.