Clarence Town is set to get a new bridge over the Williams River. The new bridge will be built alongside the heritage-listed Brig O\u2019Johnston Bridge on Limeburners Creek Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will allow for semi-trailers of at least 45.5 tonnes and 68-tonne B-Doubles \u2013 more than double the load capacity of the existing bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will also cater for over-width vehicles, unlike the Brig O\u2019Johnston Bridge, which is restricted to vehicles of up to 2.8 metres wide and can carry only one lane of traffic with a load restriction of 22.5 tonnes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The works will also deliver a pedestrian walkway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project is expected to improve freight access and productivity, improve road safety, and support local industries. Tenders are expected to be called in coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new $20.6 million bridge is funded by the Australian and NSW governments. The Australian and NSW governments had previously approved $8.8 million and $5.5 million in funding respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NSW Government has now increased its contribution by a further $5.5 million to $11 million and the Australian Government by $781,000 to $9.581 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Brig O\u2019Johnston Bridge will be retained and rehabilitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is fantastic news for the people of Clarence Town and for surrounding businesses and industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHeavy vehicles currently have to detour up to 52 kilometres to bypass the existing bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe new bridge will allow industry to increase load width and mass, eliminating the detour and enabling the use of more productive vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis will result in time savings while reducing energy costs and emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n NSW Regional Transport and Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI recently visited Dungog and the growing need for a new bridge was clear to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe NSW Labor Government\u2019s announcement of additional funding to ensure the new Bridge is delivered is fantastic news for the people of Clarence Town and for surrounding business and industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe key driver for this project is to provide uninhibited access and egress for heavy vehicles into the Dungog Shire area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt will also provide a freight link from the Pacific Highway and the Bucketts Way into rural agricultural areas of Dungog, Vacy and East Gresford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany of the region\u2019s agricultural industries will benefit from larger, more productive freight transport into this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese will include larger milk collection tankers, larger livestock transport vehicles, larger feed delivery vehicles and poultry farm access for deliveries of feed and stock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n NSW Government Duty MLC for the Upper Hunter electorate Emily Suvaal said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy building a more reliable road freight network, we\u2019re ensuring that food, produce and raw materials, which feed and power our state, can move to market as efficiently as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis project is a great example of all three levels of government working together for the benefit of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was made possible thanks to a combination of Australian and NSW Government funded programs, and I commend Dungog Shire Council on its vision and support of this important project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dungog Mayor John Connors said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have been advocating heavily for this project across all levels of government for several years, and we\u2019re thrilled that we can finally deliver a safe, reliable and accessible bridge that the Clarence Town community deserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a region, the Dungog shire has been identified as potentially needing 2400 residential homes by 2041, so it\u2019s great to know that the infrastructure on major arterial routes – such as the Clarence Town Bridge, will support this level of growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re incredibly grateful to the NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Jenny Aitchison and Federal Minister for Infrastructure Catherine King for working with us to make this asset a reality for the Dungog shire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Clarence Town is set to get a new bridge over the Williams River. The new bridge will be built alongside the heritage-listed Brig O\u2019Johnston Bridge on Limeburners Creek Road. It will allow for semi-trailers of at least 45.5 tonnes and 68-tonne B-Doubles \u2013 more than double the load capacity of the existing bridge. It will … Continue reading “Funding approved for new bridge at Clarence Town”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25593,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25592\/revisions\/25593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}