Council has agreed to pull down Cuttagee Bridge and rebuild a two-lane concrete bridge in its place despite receiving six verbal and two written deputations from community members, calling for more time to investigate alternatives.
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The heritage-listed timber bridge is in a bad state of repair and council had to impose a load limit on it in an effort to reduce risk.
Last week Bega MP Andrew Constance announced $16.5m funding for the Bega Valley's timber bridges, of which $7.5m has been earmarked for Cuttagee. On Wednesday, March 10 council quickly moved to endorse the funding and plans for a number of bridges in need of replacement or repair.
But community members have railed against council, accusing it of undue haste and particularly a lack of consultation with the community.
Catherine Palese was one of the six speakers at the forum prior to the council meeting and said she was greatly concerned that the plans were being rushed through without community consultation as part of a funding package.
"While everyone in the region is concerned about the safety of the bridge, most that I know in the region value the history, wooden-design and single-lane aspects of the bridge that are unique and a feature of our region," Ms Palese said.
David Francis speaking on behalf of Four Winds said the plans represented "loss of significant cultural heritage and landmarks" with impact to the Four Winds business during the bridge closure.
There was concern that having a two-lane bridge would bring more and faster traffic to the idyllic area around the bridge. However council has raised the need for two-lanes as a means of evacuation in times of natural disaster.
Another speaker, Hannah Dunn raised environmental issues around a changed footprint of the bridge with coastal erosion and nearby wetlands to be considered.
Cr Jo Dodds said the bridge represents a risk and has to be replaced. It currently has a concrete sub-structure and Cr Dodds said that was inevitable because having a timber replacement bridge would represent an unacceptable risk in "an era of bushfires".
However she said it was important for the bridge and surrounding area to have "creative elements" that reflected its heritage.
Council has agreed that the concrete bridge replacement should be "sympathetic to heritage and tourism values of the Tathra-Bermagui Road tourist route".
It also agreed to engage a heritage consultant to work with council and the community to identify how to reflect heritage and tourism values in any new structure and a coastal engineer to assist council to determine an appropriate design that addresses identified coastal hazards at the location.
However, before work can start, council must secure further funding as the $7.5m currently allocated is insufficient to complete the job. Council is planning to apply to the Building Better Regions fund which has a tourism criteria attached.
