A comprehensive community involvement program has been implemented for the project. This program has been developed to ensure ongoing opportunities for community involvement in the project and includes a freecall number (1800 882 787) and this website (see Contact us page).

The Tintenbar to Ewingsdale upgrade project is guided by community and stakeholder involvement, which ascertains the values, issues and concerns of the community. The objectives of the community involvement process are to:

• Create stakeholder and community awareness of the study and the need for the upgrade.
• Understand stakeholder and community issues, values and concerns related to the project.
• Create stakeholder and community awareness of the concept design options and then the preferred concept.
• Incorporate stakeholder and community issues into each phase of investigation, from the development of concept design options to the refinement of a preferred concept.
• Assist stakeholders and the community to understand the results of the study and to understand the next steps.

The RTA will continue to consult with landowners and the community about the preferred concept. Ongoing refinement of the design will consider local community input in relation to such aspects as access arrangements and noise management.

Your comments on the environmental assessment should be sent to the NSW Department of Planning at the address shown on the Environmental assessment page of the website.

For information on any other issue please contact the project team at the address shown on the Contact us page of the website.

Community involvement activities have included the following:

• A community liaison group was formed to assist with the investigations to select a preferred route. This role has now been completed. The notes of the community liaison group can be viewed on the Public information page of this website.
• An agricultural focus group was formed and met with the project team regularly. The aim of the group was to identify and provide technical input on agriculture based issues related to the development phase of the project. This role has been completed. The notes of these meetings can be viewed on the Public information page of this website.
• Community updates are released at various stages of the project to provide information about project developments.
• Five major community information sessions have been held since November 2004. These sessions related to:
  • Original study area
  • Expanded study area
  • Route options display
  • Preferred route display
  • Proposed highway access strategy
  The input received during the route options display is summarised in the Route Options Submissions Report April 2006, available from the Project documents page. Feedback received during the preferred route display was considered as part of the environmental assessment.