Merging lane changes are going into place for the xmas holiday season,26/27/28.December.Traffic will be very slow on those days.RTA have put temporary toilets and non drinking water containers at all pull over places.In a nut shell the Hwy north of Karuah will merge into one lane until Buladelah.After that it will be a decent run up north(hopefully).Keep it safe,feel tired ,pull over,better 30 mins late than thirty years to soon.Merry xmas to everyone,Cheers Ibbo

Midday 26/12/08.back up now Karuha to Buladelah.Dont travel unless you really need to.CheersIbbo

Surprise . nothing changed in 30 years . Give it 12 months and the new road will be open and the traffic jam will move a bit further up the road. By the time we get dual lanes to Brisbane we will need quad lanes to handle the increase.

Hi Wombat.How true.One step foreward and two steps back.Still we have no more punts to cross the rivers,no Taree,no Karauh,no more bridges to wait to open or close.No tick gates/fruit fly inspection stations and trucks can use the Hwy 7 days and nights aweek.I remember when I could not take my truck between midday Sat and midnight sundays.And soon we will bye pass Buladeela(Pom spelling)and shortly Ballina will be a mere memory.getting nostalgic...............ha not really, just miss double declutching,rocking the truck up hills,never really worked but made you feel better.better go ,on the way to the Sunshine Coast at 4.am Sat.Cheers.Ibbo.

I can remember my father saying to my mother when I could hardly situpright in the back of the old 38 Chev " It will be good Minnie when there are two lanes all the way to the boarder" . Like a fool one year in the early 70's I left Stockton Beach to go to Bankstown to have chrissie with the inlaws . On Boxing day left Bankstown about 0830 to return in the Kombi with the inlaws wife and two kids , 12 hours later got to the Hexham bridge , thought I had won the lottery, only an hour to go . No breakdowns or accidents just bumper to bumper all the way , 2hours at Mt White never turned a wheel got out the gas stove and had a road side BBQ for the family and many others. No aircon cars back then. Nothing proactive about road design in NSW . What gets up my nose is you give an engineer a brief to take a 100 kph single lane road and build in it's place a road to handle four lanes of 110 kph, within weeks of opening the speed is reduced to 80 kph and a bloody speed camera is installed . The engineer is promoted side ways to end up head of the design department through seniority not ability and the problem of inadequate design is perpetuated . You have a good time on the coast and be safe .

I haven't been up that way for a while, seems I can remember the Karuah bypass opening and starting on nthe upgrage but I think they have been working on it for about 5 years with little to show.