Hunter growth corridor road receives crucial $8.7 million upgrade

A major arterial road located within the Hunter's biggest future growth corridor will begin an $8.7 million redevelopment on Monday.

Deaves Road in Mandalong was badly damaged during a storm in April 2022 between Sauls Road and Crawford Road.

The road provides an alternative route for the M1 Pacific Motorway and Freemans Drive.

The funding has been provided equally by the federal and state governments through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

"This marks an important step in restoring and improving a crucial local road," Labor Minister for the Hunter Dan Repacholi said.

Deaves Road was partially repaired following the 2022 storm, but Mr Repacholi said these latest works were about safeguarding the infrastructure into the future.

"The project will rehabilitate the road and improve drainage, making the route safer and more resilient, and also making it better to withstand future storm events," he said.

"It's important we're not just getting these roads back to the standard they were; we need to go better. Obviously there was an issue and that's why the road got destroyed."

Mandalong is a sparsely populated rural suburb of western Lake Macquarie, but the area is earmarked for potential growth.

Two weeks ago it was announced that Morisset would be home to the Lake Macquarie station on the Sydney to Newcastle high-speed rail route.

The High-Speed Rail Authority predicted the route would turbocharge Morisset's transformation and that by 2061 80,000 dwellings and 7800 jobs would be located within two kilometres of the station.

The High-Speed Rail Authority's business case also stated that there was potential for a residential suburb to be created to the west of the M1 at Mandalong.

"We're so lucky here in the Hunter that we're a desired location," Mr Repacholi said. "People want to come to the broader Hunter, which is fantastic.

"We've got to make sure that the infrastructure is there and appropriate for when we do have natural disasters like this and this is what this $8.7 million project will do to make these roads better."

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