MOTORISTS have enjoyed their first drive along 8km of new dual carriageway on the Hume Highway between Yellow Creek and Mullengandra.
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The Hume Highway Southern Alliance yesterday opened the new deviation to traffic.
Finishing works including line marking will be completed this week.
The road will replace the existing highway route that ran to the east via Bowna.
Stakeholder manager Carol Bartley said once works were completed, traffic would travel at up to 110kmh on the new roadway which would shave 2km off the old route and cut the time it took to travel between Holbrook and Albury.
“The new section runs from immediately north of the Bells Road interchange to north of The Hermitage at Mullengandra, where we have had a satellite head office,” Ms Bartley said.
“What is most exciting is that this is a brand new road across the ridge. When you’re travelling south in the winter you get glimp-ses of the snowfields.
“The new road is open to traffic today in both directions.
“There is still some line-marking and other finishing touches to be completed and there may be some delays while that is done.”
Ms Bartley said while motorists were travelling on a new piece of road they should be aware of changed conditions.
“People should slow down while they settle into the new traffic patterns, particularly when they are coming off dual carriageway to single carriageway and vice versa,” she said.
Ms Bartley said the old highway route would become a local road maintained by Greater Hume Council.
She said the completion of the latest stage in the Hume Highway Southern Alliance project meant there were only a couple of sections to the north and a similar number to the south to be finished.
Work is progressing on the flyover that will carry Albury-bound traffic from the Olympic Highway over the new freeway, while new southbound freeway lanes have been built and pass under the flyover but are not yet open to traffic.
The Southern Alliance team, comprising the Roads and Traffic Authority, Abigroup and SKM, is responsible for the duplication of the 32km of the Hume Highway between Woomargama and Table Top.
The project is part of the Federal Government’s plan to upgrade the highway to a four-lane divided carriageway by 2012.
It is due for completion by December.
