Wednesday January 20
The afternoon exodus of workers from the Tamworth CBD combined with the festival crowd movement from venue to venue is causing a gridlock along Scott Rd.
Organisers report that the main east-south cross city route is being choked with afternoon traffic and motorists are asked to have patience and drive carefully.
Festival director Steve Bartlett says the city exit is taking most of the traffic from the CBD and business areas to the south and the build up between about 5:00pm and 5:45pm is slowing traffic considerably and causing major delays onto Goonoo Goonoo Rd.
But indicators suggest that many motorists, particularly locals, can avoid the Scott Rd bottleneck by using the Bridge St route, from the Darling St end of Kable Ave or taking the Jewry St route and cutting back towards south Tamworth through Taminda.
“It might sound like a roundabout way of getting home for a lot of people but the traffic conditions have changed over the past few years and certainly the big flow has switched from the Bridge St exit to Scott Rd,” Mr Bartlett said.
“Using Bridge St will help cut down on the Scott Rd and Goonoo Goonoo roundabout crush and free up traffic flow. It might take a couple more minutes to get up that end of the CBD but the home stretch should be easier from there.”
Tamworth Regional Council says motorists are also warned to obey traffic signs or face hefty fines.
Mr Bartlett said many motorists were refusing to obey signs, particularly in road closed areas, and police were now targeting those areas and offenders. The penalty is $197 and loss of two points.
Mr Bartlett said festival traffic would continue to build up over the next two working days and would increase the traffic snarls along main city exits. He has asked drivers to use patience and expect some delays.