What the study counted on Lewis Street

The study was prepared for the council by Gennaoui Consulting, which also wrote Mudgee's 2008 and 2014 traffic studies, and is dated August 2026. It covers the whole urban area of Mudgee and plans for about 2,780 more residential lots by 2041, a figure it takes from the council's housing strategy. Most of it is about intersections and growth. The one change the council has already moved on is about trucks.

Traffic was recounted on Lewis and Lawson streets in the week ending Tuesday 30 June 2026. On Lewis Street the count was 3,651 vehicles a day, against 3,627 in 2014, but heavy vehicles went from 254 a day (7.0 per cent of traffic) to 515 (14.0 per cent). The study puts it in one line: Whilst traffic volumes along Lewis Street remained the same since the 2014 study, the proportion of trucks has doubled.

  1. Lewis Street, 2014 count254

  2. Lewis Street, 2026 count515

  3. Lawson Street, 2024 count266

  4. Lawson Street, 2026 count220

One square per heavy vehicle a day, all drawn to the same scale. From Table 7.2 of the Mudgee Traffic Study (August 2026, page 66), which gives each street's earlier count with its year and the count taken in the week ending 30 June 2026. Total traffic in the same table: Lewis Street 3,627 (2014) and 3,651 (2026); Lawson Street 1,582 (2024) and 1,727 (2026).

Lewis Street is a designated truck route under the network the council adopted after the 2014 study, although the study notes that Lewis Street whilst currently designated as a truck route is not signposted as such. The study now recommends reclassifying it from a sub-arterial road to a minor collector, to minimise impact on the St Matthew Catholic Primary School, and says it is now proposed to restrict trucks to no more than 8 tonnes along Lewis Street except for local deliveries.

The study does not say where the extra trucks on Lewis Street come from. In the same list of observations it notes: In the time since the 2014 study there has been the declaration of the Central West Renewable Energy Zone (CWOREZ) and construction of various renewable projects. It gives no count of how many trucks are tied to the renewable energy zone.

What the council has decided, and what it has not

On 16 September the council voted unanimously to put the study on exhibition for at least 28 days, to get a further report after the exhibition with a summary of submissions and recommended actions, and to note the change to the heavy vehicle route and endorse a report to the Local Traffic Forum to consider an 8-tonne load limit on Lewis Street, Mudgee including community consultation (resolution 209/26). The resolution names no other street. The study itself is not adopted, and the director's report to the meeting says The adoption of the study does not commit Council to immediate expenditure.

Study proposes
8-tonne limits on Lewis Street (Horatio to Short streets), Lawson Street (Horatio to Short streets), Short Street (Lawson to Church streets), Bell Street and Fairy Dale Road (study, section 7.2, page 68)
Council voted, 16 Sep
A report to the Local Traffic Forum to consider an 8-tonne load limit on Lewis Street, including community consultation (resolution 209/26)
Not yet decided
Whether the Lewis Street limit goes ahead; the other four routes; the road hierarchy and truck route network the study asks the council to adopt; the plan as a whole, which returns to council after the exhibition
The proposed load limits as the Mudgee Traffic Study lists them, against the council's resolution of 16 September 2026 (unconfirmed minutes, item 10.2, page 13). The study's list names the fifth route Fairy Dale Road; elsewhere it calls it Fairydale Lane.

Where heavier trucks would go

The study is open about the trade-off. Lawson Street carries about 220 trucks a day by its count, and it proposes the same 8-tonne limit there. Its next paragraph says what follows if both streets close to heavier trucks:

If trucks are restricted along both Lewis and Lawson Streets, a large number of trucks exceeding 8 tonnes would be diverted to Horatio Street and Douro Street which currently also carry about 500 heavy vehicles per day. This increase in trucks would impact the two schools adjacent to Douro Street.

Mudgee Traffic Study, section 7.2, page 68. The study says the diversion of trucks to the Castlereagh Highway was supported in principle by the Transport for NSW representative at its stakeholder meeting.

Its answer to that impact is new traffic controls at three Douro Street intersections, which it says will improve safety for school children. The stakeholder notes in the study record that Mudgee High School has No formalised crossing on Douro Street. The study's modelling has all three intersections getting worse with growth to 2041. Douro Street is part of the Castlereagh Highway, and the study says Transport for NSW is assessing the highway's major intersections through Mudgee: They would ultimately decide on whether a roundabout or traffic signals would be installed.

Douro and Horatio
Level of service A in 2025 (12.0 seconds average delay), D by 2041 (45.2 seconds). Proposed: a roundabout or, the study's preference, traffic signals, within five years. Cost to be confirmed; Transport for NSW.
Douro and Gladstone
B in 2025 (22.6 seconds), F by 2041 (more than 70 seconds). Proposed: a roundabout or traffic signals in five to ten years. About $5m; contribution plan and Transport for NSW.
Douro and Denison
C in 2025 (29.8 seconds), F by 2041 (more than 70 seconds). Proposed: a roundabout or traffic signals in five to ten years. About $5m; contribution plan and Transport for NSW.
The three Douro Street intersections the study ties to the truck diversion. Levels of service run from A (good) to F (very poor); delays are the study's average delay for the critical movement at these sign-controlled intersections, measured for 2025 and modelled for 2041, from Table 4.7 (pages 45 to 46). Proposals, timing, costs and responsibility from section 8.3 and Table 8.1 (pages 72 to 75); the study calls its costs high level estimates.

The rest of the plan, and who it says pays

The study's draft traffic management plan stages its works over about ten years. The council's own items are small: traffic calming on Madeira Road and Gladstone Street at about $40,000 each, two seagull intersections, entry thresholds on Denison Street. Madeira Road had calming devices before; the study says they were removed after residents complained about noise. The big items are seven roundabouts and intersection upgrades at about $5 million each: five listed as Transport for NSW's, and two shared between a developer contributions plan and Transport for NSW. Its cost table carries a warning: All costs are high level estimates and subject to further design and assessment.

Within two years
More entry deflection at the Horatio and Church streets roundabout (cost to be confirmed, Transport for NSW); traffic calming on Madeira Road, Douro Street to Henry Bayly Drive (about $40,000, council); a 30m right-turn lane in Burrundulla Road at Sydney Road (about $15,000, council or contribution plan)
Within five years
Seagull intersections at Madeira Road and Robertson Street (about $200,000) and Inglis and Douro streets (about $15,000); entry thresholds in Denison Street (about $10,000); traffic calming in Gladstone Street, Fairydale Lane to Cox Street (about $40,000), all council; Douro and Horatio (above)
Five to ten years
Roundabouts or upgrades at about $5m each: Bell Street and Putta Bucca Road realigned at the highway, Horatio and Church streets, Market and Douro streets, the highway at Hill End Road, Sydney Road at Lions Drive and Burrundulla Road (all Transport for NSW), and Douro at Gladstone and at Denison (contribution plan and Transport for NSW); two Fairydale Lane seagulls (about $30,000, contribution plan)
The recommended improvements by stage, with the study's estimated costs and responsibility, from section 8.3 and Table 8.1 of the Mudgee Traffic Study (pages 72 to 75). By our arithmetic the priced items add to about $35.35 million, two are unpriced, and about $305,000 of it is listed as the council's alone.

The study's crash data covers 2019 to 2023: 82 crashes in the study area, with 85 injuries and three deaths. The highway intersection at Hill End Road, controlled by a give way sign, had six crashes with six people injured and one killed, level with the Horatio and Church streets roundabout for the most at any intersection. The roundabout the study recommends at Hill End Road is in the five to ten year group.

Cox Street, the crossing residents asked for

The study records that reopening the Cox Street railway crossing was requested by a large number of resident submissions. The Rylstone to Gulgong section of the line through Mudgee carries no trains, the study says, and the Cox Street crossing is one of four closed to traffic.

The lack of railway crossings to access South Mudgee has been of concern to residents since the 2008 study, particularly in the context of future developments in the south-west and west areas of Mudgee.

Mudgee Traffic Study, section 5.5, page 52.

Its assessment is that a reopened crossing would take 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles a day off the Douro Street and Fairydale Lane crossings, ease traffic past the high school, and raise Cox Street's afternoon peak from about 90 to about 300 vehicles an hour, adding that residents along Cox Street may not favor the increase of traffic along their street. The draft traffic management plan in section 8, its cost table and its plan map do not list the reopening. The study makes no recommendation either way.

How to comment, and what happens next

Written submissions go to the General Manager, by email to council@midwestern.nsw.gov.au, by post to PO Box 156, Mudgee NSW 2850, or through the feedback form on the council's exhibition page, which also carries the full study. They must arrive before 4.30pm on Friday 16 October. Enquiries go to the council's Director Operations on 6378 2850. After the exhibition the council will get a report summarising the submissions; the resolution gives no date for it. The Lewis Street limit has its own path, through the Local Traffic Forum with community consultation. We will report what the post-exhibition report recommends.

  1. 18 September 2025Stakeholder meeting with police, Transport for NSW, bus and transport operators and the council to identify issues.
  2. September and October 2025Afternoon peak counts at 23 intersections.
  3. 19 June 2026Draft plan presented to police, Transport for NSW and the council.
  4. Week ending 30 June 2026New counts on Lewis and Lawson streets.
  5. 16 September 2026Council votes unanimously to exhibit the study and for a report to the Local Traffic Forum to consider an 8-tonne limit on Lewis Street (209/26).
  6. 18 September 2026Exhibition opens.
  7. Friday 16 October 2026, 4.30pmSubmissions close.
  8. No date givenA further report to council with a summary of submissions and recommended actions.
Dates as the Mudgee Traffic Study (sections 2.1, 2.3, 3.4 and 7.2), its exhibition cover page and the council's exhibition page give them, with the vote from the unconfirmed minutes of 16 September 2026, item 10.2.

Our view

Labelled as opinion. On the study's own numbers the case for getting heavier trucks off Lewis Street is strong: twice the trucks of 2014 on the same traffic, near a primary school, on a truck route the study says is not signposted. The difficulty is sequence. The study's diversion paragraph assumes Lewis and Lawson are both restricted, and sends those trucks to Douro Street and the two schools adjacent to it, where the controls it says will make that safe are for Transport for NSW to choose and, at two of the three intersections, sit in its medium-term group, five to ten years, at about $5 million each. The council has moved on Lewis Street alone. And the study itself says It is pertinent to note that similar recommendations in the 2014 study have not been implemented. A useful submission before 16 October would ask the council to pair any Lewis Street limit with a dated plan for the Douro and Horatio intersection and for truck route signs, and to say what it intends for Lawson Street, so the limit does not simply move the problem onto the highway past Mudgee High School.

How we sourced this

We read the 92-page exhibition copy of the Mudgee Traffic Study (Gennaoui Consulting Pty Ltd for Mid-Western Regional Council, job J25-004, dated August 2026), downloaded from the council's exhibition page, with particular attention to sections 1, 2, 3.3, 4.3, 5, 7 and 8, Tables 4.7, 7.1, 7.2 and 8.1 and the Figure 13 plan map. Page numbers here are the study's own. We read the director's report to the 16 September 2026 ordinary meeting (business paper item 10.2, pages 191 to 194), which describes the study as dated April 2026; the exhibited copy is dated August 2026 and includes counts from June 2026, so we have relied on the exhibited copy. We read the unconfirmed minutes of the same meeting (item 10.2, resolution 209/26) and the exhibition page. Every figure here is from the study's text and tables, none from a map. We kept copies of every document.

Our arithmetic. 515 ÷ 254 = 2.03; 3,651 − 3,627 = 24 more vehicles a day on Lewis Street. Priced items in Table 8.1: within two years $40,000 + $15,000 = $55,000; within five years $200,000 + $15,000 + $10,000 + $40,000 = $265,000; five to ten years seven items at $5 million plus $30,000 = $35,030,000; total $35,350,000, with two items to be confirmed. Items listed as the council's alone: $40,000 + $200,000 + $15,000 + $10,000 + $40,000 = $305,000. 18 September to 16 October is 28 days.

What we have not done. We have not asked the council, Transport for NSW or the schools about the proposals, read the 2014 study, or seen Transport for NSW's assessment of the highway intersections. The 2041 levels of service and costs are the study's modelled and high level estimates. The heavy vehicle counts are the study's; Table 7.2 does not say on which days of the week they were taken.

Sources

  1. Gennaoui Consulting Pty Ltd for Mid-Western Regional Council, 2026 Mudgee Traffic Management Study, August 2026, exhibition copy (PDF, 92 pages, read 9 October 2026): sections 1.1, 2.1 to 2.3, 3.3, 3.4, 4.3, 5.2 to 5.5, 7.1, 7.2 and 8.1 to 8.4, Tables 4.7, 7.1, 7.2 and 8.1, and Figure 13.
  2. Mid-Western Regional Council, Mudgee Traffic Study, documents on exhibition (web page, read 9 October 2026): closing time, submission terms and contact.
  3. Mid-Western Regional Council, Business paper, Ordinary Meeting, 16 September 2026 (PDF, read 9 October 2026): item 10.2, Mudgee Traffic Study, report by the Director Operations, pages 191 to 194.
  4. Mid-Western Regional Council, Unconfirmed minutes, Ordinary Meeting, 16 September 2026 (PDF, read 9 October 2026): item 10.2, resolution 209/26, page 13.

Live on Lewis, Lawson or Douro Street, drive trucks through Mudgee, or read the study differently? Tell us and we will check it against the documents and log the outcome here.