Eraskine Park.Link road underway

Work on the $55 million, three-kilometre road between Lenore Lane, in Erskine Park, and Old Wallgrove Road, Eastern Creek, has commended. It will link the Western Sydney Employment Area and the M7, slashing transport costs for businesses.

Erskine Park. $55 million link road

The NSW government has awarded the contract for the $55 million Erskine Park Link Road to NACE Civil Engineering Pty Ltd, at Prestons, to build the 3.1 km four lane divided road between Lenore Lane, Penrith, and Old Wallgrove Road, Blacktown. Work will start as soon as possible with the main work site established in late July. It’s expected the link will be completed in 2013. “The Erskine Park Link Road connecting Lenore Lane and Old Wallgrove Road will unlock hundreds of hectares of new employment lands within the Western Sydney Employment Area,” Premier Barry O’Farrell said.

Penrith. Council disappointed with delay

The NSW government will soon call for tenders for the Erskine Park Link Road with a completion date scheduled for 2013. Penrith Mayor, Kevin Crameri, has expressed his disappointment that the government was breaking its promise to begin work on the link before the end of the year. “This is an essential piece of infrastructure that we need now – not in three years’ time. This disadvantages not only Erskine Business Park, but also the entire city, and keeps industrial traffic clogging up our residential streets. I urge (the government) to commit to a much earlier date for completion,” he said.

Erskine Park. Govt 'will tax it to death'

None of the promised 18,500 jobs would be delivered if the NSW Government imposed a $180,000 infrastructure charge on each hectare of developable land in the rezoned 800 hectares near the M7/M4 intersection. The Property Council's NSW executive director, Ken Morrison said in the Penrith Star: “While it's good to see this land rezoned the Government will tax it to death.” CSR's group property manager Andrew Mackenzie said the $80 million M7 link would be a boost for local businesses but he feared the charges could discourage development. The rezoning was part of the M7 link road package which Penrith Council and local businesses warmly welcomed.

Erskine Park. Tax will 'kill' proposal

Developers said the NSW Government's plan for an 800-hectare new business park, at the intersection of the M4 and M7 motorways, to support 16,500 jobs in Western Sydney is too costly to succeed. The Urban Taskforce, said the $180,000-per-hectare tax being imposed on developments on the site was about three times the cost of developing other land in the area. The Property Council of Australia's NSW executive director, Ken Morrison, said the "state infrastructure charge" would kill any chance of the park succeeding. "It will just kill this proposal stone-cold dead," he said. "You just cannot ask a piece of land like this to be viable and have this level of taxation associated with it." The acquisition of land for the road is beginning this year, with construction due to start in 2010, according to the ABC.