Coffs Harbour’s draft design guide for the former Pacific Highway: $19.6 million estimated to build the city centre section, and as at 8 October no funding identified for the works

The short answer. When the bypass opens, the old highway through Coffs Harbour stays a state road, and the City has drawn what it wants that road to become: a slower, greener street with more crossings, wider footpaths and a tree-planted median through the city centre. It is a draft vision, not a funded project. The City’s answer to When will the design be implemented? begins: No timeline for implementation has been confirmed. It adds that its plans fund detailed design of the first stage, but at this stage, no funding has been identified for implementation works. What residents can shape now is the direction, and the trade it makes between a quicker drive and a better street. Submissions close at 5pm on Monday 26 October.

What is on exhibition

The whole corridor, 10.2 km

Streetscape Design Guidelines for the former Pacific Highway from the Englands Road interchange to Korora Hill: tree planting, landscaping, materials, furnishings, public art, bike riding and entry statements at the three interchanges. A guide for future public works and for private development beside the road. The published estimate does not cover it.

The city centre, stage 1

A Detailed Concept Design from the Combine and Albany Street intersection to Coff Street, showing what the guidelines would look like on the ground, with a staging plan in three sub-stages and the concept estimate of $19.6 million excluding GST.

What the first stage would cost

The estimate is by quantity surveyors APLAS Group, working for the City’s design consultants King + Campbell, and is dated 5 September 2026. It splits stage 1 into three sub-stages and totals them at $19,604,436 excluding GST. It is frank about what that number is: the design is at a highly conceptual masterplan design stage, and These estimates should therefore be considered Indicative Only.

Stage 1, west to east, and its concept estimate

Construction cost excluding GST. Total $19,604,436.

Sub-stage 1BCombine and Albany Street intersection to McLean Street, between Elizabeth and Grafton streets$4,506,369

Sub-stage 1CThe McLean, Market and Little Street junction around Tandy Island$4,225,566

Sub-stage 1AFrom past Little Street through Moonee Street, Park Avenue, Harbour Drive and Vernon Street to Coff Street$10,872,501, 55% of the total

Two things sit outside the figure. The surveyors were told to leave out a design contingency, and say that at this level of design we would recommend 5-10% allowance for Design Development Allowance be included within overall Development Budget. On their total that is about $1.0 million to $2.0 million more (our arithmetic). And the estimate covers stage 1 only; it does not price the rest of the 10.2 kilometres.

What it would do to the drive

Transport for NSW commissioned Bitzios Consulting to test the city centre changes. The changes modelled include cutting the posted limit from 50 to 40 km/h from Combine Street to Coff Street, removing dedicated left-turn and slip lanes to build out kerbs at crossings, closing Market and Little streets’ connection to the highway, adding a right-turn lane into Harbour Drive, and new signalised pedestrian crossings at Combine, Moonee and Coff streets. Both cases assume the bypass is open; in the report’s words, These network changes as well as some optimisation of the traffic signals are the only differences between the Project Case and Base Case models.

Modelled travel time through the city centre, after the bypass opens

Pacific Highway, Combine Street to Coff Street, seconds. Without the changes, then with them.

Year, peak, direction	Without	With	Extra
2026 morning, northbound	91	131	40
2026 morning, southbound	120	156	36
2026 afternoon, northbound	93	161	68
2026 afternoon, southbound	86	182	96
2036 morning, northbound	101	140	39
2036 morning, southbound	125	151	26
2036 afternoon, northbound	92	164	72
2036 afternoon, southbound	97	155	58

The report’s own explanation is the speed limit: travel times increase on the Pacific Highway due to the reduced speed limit. It also finds traffic on the highway in the study area falls by about 20 per cent on average as some drivers take other routes, spread across the network with no single route greatly increasing, and that intersection results stay within acceptable performance measures. The City’s summary of the same work is shorter:

While some increases in travel times are expected as vehicle speeds are reduced, the overall impacts are generally minor, as traffic is redistributed across the wider network.

On the table above, the largest modelled change is the 2026 afternoon southbound trip: 86 seconds becomes 182, an extra 96 seconds, a little more than double (our arithmetic). The smallest is 26 seconds, southbound in the 2036 morning peak.

Parking, the slip lane and the trees

The City says parking surveys in November 2023 found on-street parking along the corridor significantly underutilised (in some instances utilisation is less than 50%), partly because many spaces are not line marked. In the city centre section it counts about 100 spaces that would fit if marked; the concept keeps about 86 and removes about 14 for wider footpaths, trees and crossings. The City’s view is that, because the spaces are unmarked and not fully used, this would not be a noticeable loss.

About 100 spaces in the city centre section

Each square is one space. Grey: kept, about 86. Coral: removed, about 14.

The concept removes the dedicated left-turn slip lane at the Coff Street intersection. The City says that makes room for footpaths, landscaping and public space, and for a safer, more direct connection to a separated on-road bicycle path on the eastern side of the highway from Coff Street to Orlando Street, linking the city centre to Park Beach Plaza. Within the city centre itself the guide does not propose separated bike paths; riders would share a slower street. The April design workshops pointed the same way: at both, the dot votes went to the stage 1 layout called Maximise parking and tree planting (19 at the staff workshop, 44 at the committee workshop) and none to the layout with a two-way cycleway. For the median, the City has shortlisted three trees and is asking which residents prefer: Leopard Tree, Brushbox and Tallowwood.

Who decides, and who pays

The City prepared the guide with Transport for NSW, but the road is not the City’s. The former Pacific Highway corridor will remain under the ownership, management and control of Transport for NSW. Any change inside the corridor needs Transport for NSW approval, and the project page says Any initiatives identified in the guide will be subject to further design, funding, approvals and collaboration with Transport for NSW.

How the guide got here, and what comes next

1. 28 Sep 2023Council endorses the Coffs Harbour Movement and Place Strategy, with an action to develop a City Spine Renewal Strategy.
2. 27 Nov 2025Council endorses the Post Bypass Renewal Action Plan, naming streetscape guidelines and a detailed concept design as priority actions.
3. 15 and 16 Apr 2026Two design workshops: City and Transport for NSW staff, then councillors, members of three council committees and other stakeholders.
4. 9 Jul 2026Traffic modelling report for Transport for NSW, version 002.
5. 5 Sep 2026Concept design estimate for stage 1.
6. 25 Sep 2026Exhibition opens.
7. 13 to 15 OctPop-ups in City Square, 9.30am to 2.30pm each day.
8. Mon 26 OctSurvey and submissions close, 5pm.
9. No dateFinal guide to Council for consideration of endorsement. No implementation timeline, and no implementation funding identified.

To have a say: the survey and the submission form are on the project page, and postcards can be returned to Yarrila Place (Level 1), Harry Bailey Memorial Library, Toormina Library or Woolgoolga Library. Submissions will be published on the City’s website; the City says your name and suburb may be shown, but not your contact details.

Our view

This is the plan our bypass coverage said to watch for: the point where the question stops being engineering and becomes what Coffs does with its main street, the question every town bypassed earlier in the upgrade has faced. The guide’s direction matches what it quotes from Transport for NSW’s own design manual for an arterial high street: wider footpaths, street trees, lower speed limits, places to stop. In our view a greener, slower centre with more crossings is a reasonable bet for a city that is about to lose its through traffic.

Two things deserve plainer words than the consultation gives them. First, the trade. The City calls the overall impacts generally minor, which is a fair summary of the network, where traffic thins and spreads out. It is not how the change will feel to someone driving south through the centre at the afternoon peak, whose modelled trip goes from under a minute and a half to just over three minutes. That may well be worth it; a high street is meant to be slower. But residents should be told the number and asked whether it is, not told it is minor. Second, the money. The guide prices one stage at about $19.6 million before GST and before the design allowance its own surveyors recommend, the road belongs to Transport for NSW, and the City says no funding has been identified for the works. Endorsing the guide will not build it. The useful thing a submission can do is say which pieces matter most: the City says feedback will help identify which projects and initiatives are most important to the community.

We will read the report that brings the final guide back to council and set out what changed after exhibition, and any funding attached to it.