Bega Valley Shire Council has a $1.92 million grant from Transport for NSW’s Fixing Country Bridges program. It will replace the single-lane timber bridge on Dignams Creek Road with a 39.5-metre single-lane concrete bridge. Photo: Bega Valley Shire Council.
The lives of Eurobodalla residents in Dignams Creek will be greatly impacted while Bega Valley Shire Council (BVSC) replaces the Boundary Bridge on the border of the two shires.
Next month the bridge will close for 15 weeks. The only way to cross the creek will be a footbridge.
Residents who need to drive to Bermagui and Narooma for work, school, medical appointments, and supplies must take a long detour behind Gulaga Mount Dromedary on ungraded dirt roads best taken on by 4WDs. The detour to reach Cobargo is also rough.
Residents affected include a woman who gave up her job in Bermagui because the bridge closure made it untenable, a person with an as-yet-undiagnosed heart condition who recently had to go to the emergency rooms in Bega, an NDIS worker whose client lives on the other side of the bridge, two Cobargo Public School pupils, and a farmer whose only farm income for the year is from selling her cattle at the markets in May.
Residents have been given no information on how emergency services could quickly reach them if needed.
The footbridge is helpful to those who have two cars, but not many households do.
Nor does everyone have a 4WD to safely tackle the rough roads.
BVSC, which has responsibility for the bridge’s maintenance, told residents that no alternative vehicular access across the creek was possible, not even the workers’ access, because it would disturb fish.
Resident Dr Fiona Kotvojs said BVSC told residents late last year that the bridge likely had to be replaced. It said there would be no access by road or foot.
She wrote to Eurobodalla Shire Council (ESC) in late January about the matter. ESC replied that BVSC would contact her.
Dr Fiona Kotvojs said the grant funding must be spent by August, “hence the mad rush”. Bega Valley Shire Council said funding for the new bridge was announced years ago. Photo: File.
Dr Kotvojs said consultation had been poor, no-one had spoken to her household, and no effort had been made to provide vehicular access.
“Blaming it on the fish sounds nice, but if you look at the dry creek, there are no fish, and after heavy rain all the gravel beds shift, so it isn’t an excuse,” she said. “It is just getting rid of the problem without trying to think about it.
“There isn’t a perfect solution but there are better solutions, and we could have had much better consultation.”
Communication by BVSC was also poor, particularly to the Eurobodalla residents, the ones most impacted.
“You would bump into someone and learn something,” Dr Kotvojs said.
Some letters were addressed to “The Resident”. Any residents who collected their mail in town and did not have a letter box received nothing.
A BVSC letter dated 25 February said the work would start on 12 March and that pedestrian access would be provided, although it may be susceptible to flooding.
“I got my mail on 5 March, but most other people didn’t get it,” Dr Kotvojs said.
In the weeks leading up to the bridge closure, residents bought supplies and made other preparations.
On 11 March, someone working on the bridge told Dr Kotvojs that the work was no longer starting on 12 March.
BVSC rang her on 12 March to tell her that the work was being delayed for three to four weeks while the footbridge was being installed. Council staff were knocking on doors, letting people know.
The woman who had given up her job in Bermagui could have continued to work for a few more weeks. She is now without work.
In a statement, BVSC bridge project engineer Tony Swallow said BVSC didn’t take the impact of the road’s closure on residents lightly, and that while alternative routes were available, it acknowledged it was a much longer journey.
He said BVSC was committed to keeping the community informed as work on the bridge neared, and would continue to share updates every step of the way.
ESC did not respond to a request for comment.
Dr Kotvojs said being on the council border was problematic and some serious issues had arisen during the Black Summer bushfires.
“BVSC is doing the work, everyone affected is in Eurobodalla and ESC abrogated its responsibilities,” she said. “Neither council has any motivation to communicate well on this issue.”
For her, the real issues are the poor consultation and the failure to look at alternatives.
“It is really simplistic to say that just because it affects a small number of people, they don’t need to find a solution,” she said.
Dr Kotvojs said some of the $1.9 million should be spent on a better solution.
“We understand to fix the bridge we must have some inconvenience. How do you get a realistic balance between inconvenience and emergency access?”
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