Rebuild contract for beleaguered bridge awarded to Yackandandah firm

Yackandandah construction company Nelmac won the bid to rebuild the crippled bridge south of Barnawartha after more than a year of traffic delays and congestion.

Access over the twin culverts was closed to traffic in October 2022 after structural deficiencies within the culverts.

Speaking to the motion to award the contract, deputy mayor Bernard Gaffney said he could see the "light at the end of the tunnel".

"One thing about the people of Indigo Shire, they are very patient when it comes to bridges," Cr Gaffney said at Tuesday night's council meeting. "There's two on the Beechworth-Wodonga Road, one of which has now been fixed, and the Indigo Creek Road Bridge is ours.

"Indigo Shire is very persistent when it comes to federal or state government grants.

"The overall budget for the delivery of this project is $1.553 million, $1.242 is federal government Bridges Renewal Program money and $310,000 from the council - it's just great to see light at the end of the tunnel."

Councillor Diane Shepheard, who lives in Indigo Creek Road, said she would see people "waving at each other across the gap".

"We had to deliver the papers from across the gap, people would walk across the creek delivering the papers to someone at the other end - so they put up with a lot really," Cr Shepheard said.

"It will be exciting. It means that the trucks are now going to able to be bolting along that road ... so, it is exciting, but there's always a deficit isn't there?"

Tenders were called for design and construction of a new 23-metre single span, two-way, road bridge to replace the existing twin, round corrugated metal culverts at the site.

Indigo Shire mayor Sophie Price said the council had seen "significant infrastructure fail" and had advocated robustly with state and federal governments with help to repair it.

"We'd go and have those conversations with state and federal government because we said we cannot put back corrugated tin drains underneath these roads," Cr Price said.

Completion of the works will return full speed, two-way traffic to Indigo Creek Road and remove the current 23 Tonne load restriction currently in place.

It was not clear when the project will be completed, but in its recommendation the council said "reinstatement of full two-way unrestricted traffic to Indigo Creek Road as quickly as possible" was a key priority for Indigo Valley residents.

The motion to award the contract to Nelmac was supported unanimously at the Indigo Shire Council meeting on Tuesday, April 23.