Blayney Shire Council will now investigate the options that are open to it to build a bridge across Cowriga Creek on the Carcoar Road, following a heavily amended notice of motion being carried unopposed during Monday night’s February council meeting.
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The original notice of motion, put forward by councilor Bruce Reynolds, included nine points that included consulting with bridge demolition and construction experts and the reconstruction and bitumen sealing of the road just north of the bridge past Davis’s Dairy, was amended down to two points at the beginning of the meeting.
The new amendment effectively stops all work on the wet crossing option until a full report detailing bridge engineering and design options, demolition of the existing bridge and budget implications is brought back for Council consideration.
Council now has two months to workshop the project as the different options are developed to facilitate the preparation of both the 2018/2019 Operational Plan and 2018/2022 Delivery Plan.
“The wet crossing is not a viable alternative,” Cr Reynolds said, “We need to be progressive and future proof the road by building a road and bridge that will work for the shire now and into the future.”
Cr Reynolds vision includes a b-double capable bridge that will enhance access to CTLX and build the connections between Millthorpe and Carcoar.
“Forest Reefs and Millthorpe are the growth areas of the shire and for those in the northern reaches of the shire some are sending stock to the sale yards in Forbes rather than down to Carcoar,” he said.
Councillor David Kingham would like to work with the local aboriginal land council to rename the road and deliver a tourist route to deliver business to Carcoar.
“There’s a flicker of life in Carcoar at the moment and the whole point of this is to invigorate the town for business, and to allow better access to the town for sporting groups,” he said.
Councillor Scott Denton main concern is that the conversation is centred on the bridge, and not on the road.
“With a bridge there and the road in the condition it is, it may be unsafe and considering the number of people that will be using it, during the workshops over the next two months that council includes the costs of upgrading the road,” he said.
Cr John Newstead is also supporter of the amendment.
“I think that the $50,000 allocated for the wet crossing would be better spent on the demolition of the current bridge.”
Mark Logan
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
