There will be at least another year of planning before construction work begins to flood-proof a key link between Maitland and Cessnock.
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The NSW budget included reference to flood mitigation at Cessnock Road, Testers Hollow, in a broad list of Hunter road projects to get a share of $54.8 million in the coming financial year.
But a breakdown of the funding carve-up in the budget papers didnt include reference to flood-proofing the troubled stretch of road.
A Roads and Maritime Services source told Fairfax Media $17 million of state and federal funding had been allocated for more planning and design work for the road.
The source said there was no money set aside for construction at Testers Hollow in 2018/19.
He confirmed the project would involve lifting the height of the road, which closed for about a week because of flooding on two separate occasions within a nine month period in 2015 and 2016.
Those cases, along with several previous serious floods at the site that closed the road for extended periods of time, prompted calls for a permanent solution for the link road between two of the Coalfields largest cities.
Other Hunter road projects identified in the budget included planning and pre-construction work for the Rankin Park to Jesmond section of the Inner City Bypass ($14.5 million), money to upgrade the Weakleys Drive intersection on the M1 Pacific Motorway, Nelson Bay Road improvements - which were promised days before the last election - planning for the extension of the M1 Pacific Motorway to Raymond Terrace and $4 million for other Hunter pinch points.
There wont be any construction on a Singleton or Muswellbrook bypass in 2018/19, with funding allocated only for further planning of those projects.