There’s an eerie silence cloaking the Bolivia Hill angel who sits atop the stretch of highway that claimed the life of young Billie Ward when her dad’s truck ran off the road there more than two decades ago.
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With the memorial to Billie impacted by next year’s realignment of the New England Highway over the notorious hill, seasoned truck drivers who regularly ply the route have concerns about the the angel’s plight, but the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) is being sensitive to the issue.
The memorial was highlighted in a historical heritage assessment back in 2013, and the RMS left a note alongside the well-tended memorial requesting that they be contacted before work on the realignment begins although there’s been no response so far.
With Route 7B now the preferred route, the memorial is expected to be indirectly impacted by the roadworks.
“The review of environmental factors identified a number of roadside memorials to those who’ve died in crashes on this stretch of the highway, one of them is the angel memorial,” an RMS spokesperson said.
“Due to impacts from the upgrade, the angel memorial needs to be relocated more to the east.
“Roads and Maritime Services has been unable to find a contact for the family, so will follow its roadside tributes policy and remove and store the memorial while work is carried out.
“Once the upgrade is complete, the memorial will be reinstated to the east of the new alignment.”
The RMS would appreciate being contact by anyone with information about the memorial or able to provide a contact name .
