WSP Australia and Mott MacDonald, trading as IRDJV, were awarded the $6 million contract for the Illabo to Stockinbingal section of Inland Rail on Friday. 

The new 37 kilometre rail corridor will bypass the steep and winding Bethungra Spiral, providing a new direct route from the east of Illabo up to Stockinbingal.

Member for Riverina Michael McCormack noted the importance of the spiral to farmers during WWII and hoped the 1700 kilometre inland rail project would do the same today.

“Local know-how helped deliver the Bethungra Spiral and today we are looking at how we can draw on local skills and ingenuity again,” Mr McCormack said. “This continues our commitment to see the project delivered.”

Inland Rail delivery director Simon Thomas said IRDJV’s feasibility design would build on preliminary investigations and extensive community engagement already conducted by the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

“ARTC are working to provide more information as local residents, landowners and surrounding communities are keen to know more about Inland Rail from an engineering and design perspective and the feasibility design is the next step in that process,” Mr Thomas said.  

“This feasibility design work will give us information in terms of engineering, environmental, traffic and other impacts, which we can use to design and build the best possible rail line.

“It will lay the groundwork for the detailed design for these sections, and there will be more contracts awarded by ARTC over the coming months in regional NSW.”

Mr Thomas said the region would see the benefits of the massive infrastructure project as it moved towards construction.

“Farmers and regional communities, big and small, will benefit by better connecting produce to domestic and international markets,” he said.

Once the inland rail line is operational, the Bethungra Spiral will continue to be used for freight and passenger services to Sydney.