RESIDENTS aren't sold on the $76 million dollar upgrade to the major chokepoint on Mandalong Road, arguing it will struggle to meet demands under new pressure from the $235 million Cedar Mill development.
The Coalition has promised to commit $56 million towards the project, with the state government kicking in a further $20 million to replace two roundabouts with traffic lights and double the lanes between Freeman's Drive and the M1.
It's been lauded as the key to unlock investment in Lake Macquarie, but locals aren't convinced the road can cope.
Kelly Grunsell has lived in Cooranbong for more than six years, and while she welcomed the upgrade, she said it still may not be enough to stifle congestion woes.
"It backlogs every day, every morning and afternoon is the worst because you get everyone from the freeway coming through," she said.
"There's lots of congestion and there's no other outlet for anyone to come off, this is the only road to get you in and out so it's really the traffic build up that's the worst.
"Widening of the road and more lanes - yes, but it's the way it is now, everything's building up and there's too many people.
"With that development the road won't cope, it's a great idea but the road won't cope."
She said outside of peak hour, it takes about 10 minutes to get to Bonnell's Bay, but when the traffic banks up drivers can find themselves sitting idle for half an hour.
"It definitely needs something, we thought the Newport Road entry and exit point for the freeway would go ahead but apparently now there's no entry and exit, that would have helped a lot with this build up," she said.
The bottleneck is just down the road from Morriset's main street, where local resident Michelle Harris works.
She's lived on Freeman's Drive for the past seven years and said the traffic of a morning and afternoon is "ridiculous".
"I think it's going to get worse, because they're talking about that big development where the country club used to be, so hopefully they are going to do roadworks before then," she said.
"It's crazy, at peak hour it's ridiculous and we can see it here too [on the main street] because at 3:30 to four in the afternoon it's really busy, we get that bank up and it's really bad."
Lake Macquarie City Council deputy mayor Jason Pauling was on hand for Thursday's announcement, which is expected to draw $1.2 billion of investment into the area.
He said the upgrade was well and truly overdue, with the B53 at capacity for "quite some time".
"There's two elements, there's traffic flow, but the investment and downstream economic firepower unleashed by taking away the chokepoint between this intersection and the freeway is phenomenal," he said.
"It's the key to the lock - it really is.
"With a major chokepoint here all that downstream investment is really stalled, it's in a holding pattern waiting to be unlocked and this is the key. It can't come soon enough."
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce slammed Labor's earlier $30 million commitment to upgrade the major chokepoint on Mandalong Road, arguing the party needs to "get its numbers right" and "do your homework".
"You can't do it with an investment of $30 million, we came up with the number $56 million because that's what was asked of us," he said.
"Ours builds it, and there's gets to - I don't know, down the track a bit.
"They're putting in $30 million? They're not even halfway there."
A Labor spokeswoman said that when it made its announcement in March, the project was costed at $40 million.
"If the expected cost has gone up and the government has that additional information, we'll match it," she said.
"The reality is though, only an Albanese Labor Government can be trusted to actually deliver it."
The federal government has already budgeted for the upgrades.
The state and federal governments have put $76 million combined toward the project, with the local council to decide whether it still needs to commit a further $10 million.
A council spokeswoman said it will continue to work with Transport for NSW on final design specifications and cost verification.
"In those discussions we have indicated our preparedness to make a contribution to the project to ensure delivery," she said.
