Long-suffering residents of Milton Ulladulla woke to important news on Thursday. The bypass they have wanted for decades appeared a little closer with the announcement $400 million of the $500 million pledged by the Coalition in the May budget would help fund it.
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Just two days before the country goes to the polls, the announcement was the last bullet in the Coalition's armoury with which to try to retain Gilmore.
And, of course, the pledge is dependent on the government being returned - a point laboured at the press conference spruiking the announcement.
The intention was quite clear: this was a last-minute pitch to voters who might not yet have mind up their minds.
The pledge was designed to appeal to voters in the middle of the electorate who know all too well the disruption that occurs every holiday season when traffic banks up for kilometres.
We wonder why, when Kiama MP Gareth Ward had been pressing for a better highway funding deal with the federal government since 2011, it had taken this long for a commitment. Perhaps it's the razor-thin margin in Gilmore that could determine the fate of the government.
With the South Coast the number one tourist destination outside Sydney, that congestion is only likely to get worse.
While the Labor Party matched the Coalition's $500 million funding promise early in the campaign, there is no indication of where it would spend that money should it win government.
More important perhaps than the bypass announcement itself was the Deputy Prime Minister's pledge to apply an 80-20 funding split between the Commonwealth and NSW. This is the same funding arrangement that has seen the Pacific Highway upgraded almost all the way from Sydney to the Queensland border.
Mr Cormack said this contrasted with the Labor Party's preference for 50-50 funding models.
All this might prove academic come Sunday if, as the polls are predicting, Labor wins government.
However, it will keep the conversation alive - and that is important.
We made it abundantly clear at the press conference in Bomaderry that no matter who takes the reins of power after Saturday, the FIX IT NOW campaign would be relentless in its pursuit of a safer highway, one divided all the way to the Victorian border.