Darcy Garlick-Kelly
Another Easter over, and another Bluesfest has come and gone.
Festival-goers again faced significant queues getting off the Pacific Highway and into the Bluesfest site this year.
But the worst of the traffic trouble was, and continues to be, on the Pacific Highway, where two lanes have been reduced to one coming down St Helena and at the Ewingsdale on-ramp.
According to the Traffic Management Centre, the Ewingsdale section of the Pacific Highway experienced regular bottlenecks over the Easter long weekend, with queues up to 11km reported on Thursday and Friday.
ABC Local Radio reported queues backed up 23km from Ewingsdale on Easter Monday, with a combination of Easter traffic, holiday traffic and festival patrons bringing drivers to a standstill.
The Live Traffic NSW website earlier today indicated 3km southbound queues with heavy traffic in Ewingsdale, and warned drivers to expect significant delays.
The ongoing Pacific Highway upgrade of St Helena Hill continues to be a major contributing factor, slowing traffic in both directions. With its expected completion in early 2015, perhaps the 26th Bluesfest will be a smoother affair for festival-goers and holiday-makers alike.
PUT TRAINS ON THE RAILS!!! this will ease the traffic and let locals move around the area when the traffic is this bad on the pacific hwy. most of the traffic on the highway is going north and south between brisbane and sydney, and then there Is the congestion in byron bay. Byron Bay desperately needs a traffic congestion solution, with many locals waiting on a CBD Bypass, such as the proposed bypass from butler st the browning st. this will take a small amount of traffic, but rail services would be much more efficient and cheaper to build. the Butler st to Browning st bypass proposal is about 1km for $9 million. The North Byron Beach Resort has a proposal for 3km of rail track for only $1 million. for the cost of a bypass we could have a rail shuttle from Mullum to Byron!