A joint federal and state government statement released on Tuesday confirmed the anticipated $4 million for the project, with ‘construction expected to start in late 2018’ and be completed by the end of 2020.

Roberta Horne, who has led the push to get trucks out of the town’s main street in recent years, said the announcement was a win.

“This money, which is exactly what (Federal Infrastructure Minister) Darren Chester talked about when he came last year,” she said.

“I think we will have a route within two years – people have been asking for a bypass, but we’re not going to get it – it will be an existing road network that’s upgraded,” she said.

“This is what I’ve been advocating for.”

Ms Horne met with the VicRoads project team this month and said their Origin to Destination Study, to identify the best deviation route, would be underway soon.

“They said traffic counters would be out and cameras set up in early November and they think it will be out for public consultation early in the new year,” she said.

At a community meeting on the project in May, VicRoads representative Sarah Morris said the full cost of the project would not be known until a route was chosen, with approximately $600,000 to be spent on the study and consultation.

“That would leave $3.4 million to do actual works on the ground, but until we figure out a preferred route … we don’t know what those things are,” she said.

Northern Victoria MLC Jaclyn Symes said the community would be involved in determining the deviation route.

“We’ll be consulting with the local community, businesses, council and freight industry as we work to identify a preferred project route for this important project,” she said.