Queanbeyan Council will push for a temporary bridge fix for Hoskingtown residents. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
An independent audit into bridge chaos in southern NSW is on the cards.
Earlier this year, Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) awarded a multimillion-dollar contract for the design and construction of a replacement for a low-level causeway along Briars Sharrow Road, a 10-minute drive from Bungendore.
To allow for its construction, the bridge was shut, with motorists directed towards Foxlow Bridge.
In late April, the council temporarily reopened Briars Sharrow Bridge after issues were found with the replacement route.
At a recent meeting, Queanbeyan Mayor Kenrick Winchester used his Mayoral Minute to call for an urgent meeting with NSW politicians about funding for a replacement or temporary crossing at Foxlow.
He also requested that the council’s risk committee audit the Briars Sharrow Bridge Replacement Project and Foxlow Bridge maintenance programs.
Briars Sharrow Road is currently closed again as the replacement continues. Foxlow Bridge remains closed indefinitely.
Mayor Winchester said the Foxlow closure “fundamentally changed” the impacts, including around traffic management, for the Briars Sharrow project.
“Given the level of public concern and the significance of the impacts now being experienced, I believe it is appropriate that these matters be independently reviewed through [the audit].”
A staff member told the meeting that QPRC employees were preparing short- and long-term actions in response.
He said this included discussions with contractors and other consultants about options for replacing or repairing Foxlow Bridge, as well as ongoing works at the Reschs Creek and Briars Sharrow crossings in light of its closure.
“Replacement [of Foxlow Bridge] provides the most predictable long-term outcome, acknowledging that there are short-term pressures,” he said.
He also said a meeting had been held with Transport for NSW about whether separate roadworks on the Kings Highway could be shortened, with the goal of limiting traffic impacts on residents.
Briars Sharrow, shown during a flood in 2021, has been closed while a higher replacement is built. Photo: Ashley Warwick.
Later that meeting, councillors agreed to close Foxlow Bridge to all vehicular traffic and consider how a temporary crossing could be created.
Cr Ross Macdonald described an independent report presented to councillors as showing “a sorry picture” of the bridge.
He admitted that while the report had been prepared following April 2026 inspections, the community’s concerns about the bridge’s condition weren’t new.
“If we go out to the community, they’d have drummed that into us, I’m certain, and we never would have pursued that until such time as we had dealt with the issue upstream.”
Cr Katrina Willis urged QPRC to move beyond an “urgent fix”.
She said that although a temporary crossing over the Molonglo River was needed, the council had to consider the bridge’s historical importance.
It is one of the few Allan timber-truss bridges remaining in NSW.
“I read the condition report from the engineers — it is quite shocking, and it’s very clear to me that if we don’t start to look at this issue, the bridge will collapse,” Cr Willis said.
“It will tumble into the Molonglo River, and that’ll be the end of it. Demolition by neglect is what this is called, and when a private citizen does it, it’s a very serious issue.”
Cr Willis failed to have the council prepare a report for “all options for remediation, retention and adaptive reuse” of the bridge, as well as cost estimates for those options.
Cr Winchester hit out at the suggestion that QPRC had agreed to abandon the bridge.
“We are not endorsing the demolition of Foxlow Bridge with what we’re doing tonight,” he said.
“We need to be concentrating on short, immediate solutions for the people of Rossi and Hoskingtown, and not the long-term future of the Foxlow Bridge itself.
“We will get to that — I’ve no doubt — in the months and years ahead.”
