AN HISTORIC bridge at Chiltern is temporarily missing from beside Lake Anderson, as work gets underway to rebuild it by the end of June.
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The 140-year-old Monet-style overpass has been removed from its original position, while the spillway beneath is reconstructed.
A tender for the bridge was awarded to North East Civil Construction shortly after a community meeting in March, 2015.
The rebuild of the current spillway and the addition of a secondary one was awarded to the same company last month.
Altogether, the revamp costs about $135,000.
Indigo Council director of infrastructure services Ian Ellett said a lot of community input went into the final design.
“When we left that meeting that we could see clearly how important the bridge and the history of it was in Chiltern,” he said.
“It’s an iconic thing for the town.
“This bridge is quite significant, it certainly has a lot of age about it.
“There was a big tree which was also saved, it could have easily disappeared with the works.”
Timber at the base of the original bridge had began to rot, prompting the council to start planning.
The project has taken longer than expected due to negotiations with the community and heritage leaders on the bridge's design.
It took some time for the council and the community to come to an agreement after the proposal strayed too far from the original look.
Mr Ellett said the rebuilt version, which was decided upon, would be wider and will have stainless steel cable running between the balastrades to meet Australian safety standards.
“The other thing was to do a bridge of similar character but with longer life materials, the community was very strong about the character and history of bridge,” he said.
“The primary spillway under the bridge is being reconstructed and rebuilt at the same level.
“The secondary spillway was based around managing risks and flood mitigation for the town, so we can take incoming flows.”
Most of the timber on the bridge was replaced in the 1970s but was kept to the same design.
There was also talk among community members last year a tribute to the late Rex Fuge OAM should be considered at the bridge.
Mr Fuge, who was the president of the Chiltern Athenaeum for 35 years, started working with Indigo Council more than two years ago to plan the bridge’s refurbishment.
Without him, members of the Chiltern Athenaeum said the bridge could well have been lost.