Timber deck replacement works are being carried out on Sandy Creek Bridge on the Tathra Bermagui Road, as of Monday, October 25.
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However, local residents and those who travel to and from Tanja School each day are unhappy about the lack of consultation, or indeed notification, with Bega Valley Shire Council posting about the works via Facebook the same day the works were to commence.
Scheduled to continue until Friday November 12, this means the Tathra Bermagui Road will be closed to all traffic at the bridge from Wednesday, October 27, from 9am to 3pm, on weekdays.
Council advised that message boards would be in place at Tathra and Bermagui to notify road users of the closure and that traffic control would be in place to let road users know of the detour via Dr George Mountain Road and the Princes Highway.
Tanja School parent Cayce Hill said council choosing to do the works between 9am and 3pm was "ridiculous".
"There is general lack of care for what that means for the community and how challenging it's going to be," Ms Hill said.
"We're the only small school without a bus and have been trying for so long to get one.
"The bus company are saying they don't have the okay from council to run one, it's been such an ordeal, and now with these works going on it's still not going to happen."
Carmen Risby lives in Tathra and is also part of the Tanja School community.
"I had zero communication about the works and found out via Facebook. I think the last people to know were the school."
Ms Risby said for her family, the closure of Sandy Creek Bridge represented a three-hour journey instead of 10 minutes, having to drive to Bega and up the Princes Highway to Bermagui and back down the coast road.
According to her, the majority of families who attend Tanja School live south of Sandy Creek bridge.
"The worst bit was the lack of communication and lack of community consultation," Ms Risby said.
"If they had done that they would have known before they scheduled it, that doing the work between 9.15am and 2.45pm would have meant those needing to access school wouldn't be seriously impacted."
Comments on the BVSC Facebook page appear to indicate the school was not aware of the work being carried out, although the council said it had notified the school prior.