The future of embattled shortcut between Holbrook Road and the Olympic Highway is now in the hands of independent consultants who were contracted by council to report on whether it was worth upgrading or closing. 

Council staff met with both sides of the debate at two separate meetings on Monday, with residents of Dunns Road generally calling for its closure while residents of Uranquinty demanding the road remain open.

But it was the revelation that a single vehicle had sped along the road 57km/h over the limit that caught everyone’s attention at an open community meeting on Tuesday.

About two dozen people were gathered to hear from commercial operations director Caroline Angel at the council chambers about possible options for the future of Dunns Road and a timeframe for when the matter would return to council.

“Everybody agrees Dunns Road has issues and probable the key thoughts from both areas is it’s quite a safety risk,” Ms Angel said. “There are issues in relation to dust and the speed of people travelling on the road, a number of property owners say the unpredictability of road users is of concern and there is the ongoing cost of maintaining the road and we still don’t necessarily get a great result.”

Modifying the road to include a chicane – a rapid dogleg-type turn that forces drivers to slow down – was one of the more innovative ideas put forward.

Wagga mayor Greg Conkey heard both sides of the debate and hadn’t made up his mind yet, but said “six or seven million” was a lot of money for just 300 vehicles per day.