THE Bellingen Shire Council have been busy this spring with works on roads, bridges and community infrastructure as part of their Capital Works Program.

If you have had the pleasure of taking a drive on the Promised Land Loop Road recently you would have noticed the completion of Stage One roadworks.

The roadworks were a result of a $190,000 investment from Council and a further $1,707,000 of Fixing Local Road Funds this financial year towards repairing and resealing approximately six kilometres of Gleniffer Road to maintain this important transport corridor.

Valery Road, another scenic tourist drive, has also recently benefited from the Council’s roadworks programs.

Stage One upgrades to Valery Road has seen encroaching vegetation removed along a five hundred metre section of the road to improve onsite drainage during severe weather events and to allow for this section of road to be re-sealed with new bitumen.

Other projects include Burdett Park’s toilet block which has been demolished and the carpark upgraded.

The Atherton Drive Master Plan is also continuing to be actualised with recent bitumen sealing delivered to the entire one thousand, two hundred and seventy metre length of Atherton Drive.

There’s also more than $4.8M committed towards current and future road work projects, including the current upgrade of Little North Arm Road and Stage Two of the Promised Land Loop Road Project, which will repair and reseal another 900-metre section of the road which is in poor condition.

Stages Two and Three of the Valery Road Upgrade Project are also underway to improve onsite drainage during severe weather events and to allow for an additional 1.5 kilometre this section of road to be re-sealed with new bitumen.

Onsite works are also underway to prepare sections of North Bank Road, totalling 5.3 kilometres, for bitumen repair and reseal works during the warmer months this year when Council will also continue to reseal segments of Deer Vale Road, which will total 6.7 kilometres once completed.

Bridge renewals are also getting the attention of the council with several projects in the area totalling $21,600,000 in funds to deliver the Bridge Renewal Program.

Twenty seven bridges across the shire will be removed and replaced so the local community, farmers and businesses can all safely travel.

Current Bridge Renewal Projects include the removal and replacement of Tallowwood Point Bridge, located approximately seven kilometres from the Gleniffer Four-Way Intersection, and conducting geotechnical investigations to replace five key bridges along the flood impacted Kalang Road.

Future Bridge Renewal Projects are also being managed through the design, tender and pre-construction phases, including the $1,660,000 removal and replacement of Richardson’s Bridge, an old single lane, five-span timber bridge located on Darkwood Road, Darkwood.

 

By Sandra MOON