* Ocean Drive Upgrade
Client: Roadnet/Port Macquarie Hastings Council.
Location: Port Macquarie, New South Wales.
2014
Our recent koala habitat and population study across the Port Macquarie Hastings LGA for Port Macquarie Hastings Council identified Ocean Drive between the town of Port Macquarie and Lake Cathie to the south as a major koala black spot, this 20km strip of road accounting for 242 recorded deaths over the period 1975 - 2012.
Council are currently proposing to upgrade a 3.6 km section of Ocean Drive between Greenmeadows and Emerald Drives on the southwestern edge of Port Macquarie in order to accommodate increases in traffic volume, with other upgrades expected to occur over time. We have been working collaboratively with Council officers and other consultants to develop mechanisms that will not just function to ameliorate the impacts of the proposed upgrade, but at the same time offer the potential for a longer-term, landscape-based management framework that can function to consolidate connectivity options for koalas while also negating the potential for future road strike to occur across a much larger area.
