A MILESTONE was reached on Friday when the state government announced $800,000 worth funding for the replacement of the Tin Tot bridge between Graman and Ashford.
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The new bridge is a $1 million project, with Inverell Shire Council contributing $200,000 to the last wooden bridge in the shire listed on it bridge replacement program.
Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall said he knew it was a big priority for the council.
“No doubt it will be good to get that off their books and have it replaced with a good, modern concrete structured bridge,” Mr Marshall said.
“This all flows from a meeting the council had with the roads Minister last year, and this funding is through a new program call the Fixing Country Roads Program (FCR).”
“It was very good to pick up the phone last week and give the mayor and the general manager the heads up that they’d been successful. They were pretty excited.
Mr Marshall said there had to be a council component to any fund under the scheme, and sometimes the federal government provided a share of the funding also.
“I’ve got some projects in the electorate where the federal government is contributing and I have others where they are not,” Mr Marshall said.
“There’s $37 million of state money across NSW and if re-elected, the government will increase that to $500 million over five years for the FCR program.”
Minister for Transport Duncan Gay said too many local roads and bridges are unable to carry the weight of high productivity vehicles, like modern B-doubles, which means these freight trucks are unable to take the most direct and cost-effective route to transport goods to market.
Mr Gay said three quarters of the projects funded were ‘shovel ready’.
“Sixty successful council applications are road and bridge construction projects, while 17 successful applications are bridge and culvert assessments,” he said.
