John Emmery, of the Albury Citizens and Ratepayers Movement, said all groups involved with the freeway should now work together to achieve the best outcomes.

He said the summit held between the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority and Albury Council had identified many points that had been raised by the public since the freeway opened in March 2007.

The chaotic situation on the Borella Road bridge was one and the shortcomings of noise barriers on the East Albury frontage were another.

Mr Emmery said it was in everyone’s interest to see the measures announced in the summit were acted on and the Albury Citizens and Ratepayers Movement would be monitoring progress.

But Graeme Richardson, of the Albury Concerned Citizens group, blamed the council for not acting sooner and for not raising its concerns during the long construction period.

“The council showed a lack of foresight and is half to blame for the Borella Road bridge,” Mr Richardson said.

During the June 5 summit, RTA engineer Charlie Blomfield said that traffic monitoring on Borella Road showed that flows were working “but there is little capacity to manage further growth”.

Mr Blomfield was responding to suggestions that more lanes should be added to the bridge, but he said “it would be a challenging exercise to provide an extra one or two lanes on Borella Road”.

Mr Richardson said he had raised concerns about the bridge repeatedly as a member of the community liaison committee during the construction period but had been fobbed off by RTA engineers.

“The council should have pushed like hell for extra lanes,” he said.

Mr Richardson recalled the East Albury community’s fight to retain a vehicle bridge opposite Dean Street and said the situation at Borella Road now showed they had been right all along.

Editorial — page 12