In positive news for the community, MidCoast Council has received approval for the preliminary designs of The Bight Bridge and Tiri Bridge reconstruction projects.
The reconstruction of both bridges is only possible through assistance provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
Director Infrastructure and Engineering, Rob Scott said that the NSW Reconstruction Authority has approved preliminary designs for both bridges.
“This approval is an important milestone in progressing the replacement of the two bridges and provides us with the certainty needed to approach the market and seek suitably qualified contractors to provide quotes,” said Mr Scott.
“We’ve been working on tender documentation in anticipation of these approvals. We’re looking to go out to tender by early October for Tiri Bridge and by late October for The Bight Bridge.
“We’ll take these quotes back the NSW Reconstruction Authority to seek upper limit funding approval, which will then allow us to engage a contractor to do the work.”
The planned Bight Bridge alignment is downstream of the old bridge, with a provisional length 175m and a slightly higher deck level compared to the previous bridge. While DRFA funding arrangements are for like-for-like replacement, the reconstructed bridge will meet current engineering standards, making it considerably stronger and more resistant to uplift of the deck.
You can view the preliminary designs and details of both replacement bridges on Council’s Roads Hub.
Aside from these major bridge projects, there is a lot of other work in the pipeline. Current estimated costs for both emergency works and reconstruction works now exceed $320 million.
Council has completed $42 million worth of Emergency and Immediate Reconstruction Works and submitted funding claims for a large volume of Essential Public Asset (EPA) Reconstruction Works. These EPA Reconstruction Works are needed to restore damaged infrastructure to the condition it was in before the flood. Council estimates there is over $282 million to do in EPA Reconstruction Works. So far, Council has submitted funding claims to the value of $156 million.
For each EPA Reconstruction Work, Council needs funding approval before works can begin. This is because the scale of the recovery is well beyond Council’s capacity to fund. Council needs to demonstrate that each proposed reconstruction work is directly related to the flood event, supported by sufficient evidence, and appropriately costed.
To speed up the process of submitting claims and engaging contractors, Council has been developing works packages which combine several roads or damage sites on sealed and unsealed roads.
Council continues to work with the NSW Reconstruction Authority to assess and progress these submissions, with funding already advanced to support Council to continue delivering its recovery program.
