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Geelong's Southern Link hits another hurdle

Geelong Council has voted to postpone the decision whether to award $2.7m towards the final stage of the city's bike lane project.

The Southern Link bike route is part of $6.3m Building Better Bike Connections project funded by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC)’s for two major cycling routes to connect the southern and western suburbs to central Geelong. The TAC pledged $2.3m towards the construction of stage two, with the CoGG to fund an additional $769,000.

City of Greater Geelong’s councillors voted on 26 July to defer a decision to grant the contract for the final stage of the Southern Link from Barwon River to Waurn Ponds via Belmont.

Planning for the cycling corridor was first approved in 2018, with funding announced the following year, however the project has faced considerable setbacks since then.

Stage 1 of the Southern Link from Central Geelong to the Barwon River was completed earlier this year, however Stage Two of the project has proved to be more controversial, with community opposition and pushback from three Geelong councillors in March.

While the reasoning behind the deferral was not provided, Mayor Peter Murrihy said that there were “matters that need to be discussed by the council group in relation to this, and I can’t say much more than that.”

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