B-double trucks will no longer need to travel through Henty's main road Sladen Street to reach the town's GrainCorp silo, after a $7.93 million railway crossing was officially opened on Tuesday.
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The project, eight years in the making, allows trucks to cross onto Grubben Road before reaching the town.
Greater Hume Councillor Doug Meyer said before the crossing was opened, 100-tonne trucks were travelling down Sladen Street and through town past children and elderly residents.
He said a near-miss in 2013 between a truck and XPT at the Williams Crossing only emphasised the need for the new crossing.
"I'm very pleased, it's a dream come true," Cr Meyer said.
"It's probably the first big project I started when I was a councillor. Today was a day of fruition, I can't describe it any other way.
"It's taken eight years but it's been eight years of hard work, well worth doing."
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The project was jointly funded by Greater Hume Council, the federal government who provided $3.6 million through the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program, and the NSW government who provided $3.1 million through the Regional Communities Development Fund.
Council and the NSW government also funded the $800,000 reconstruction of Grubben Road.
"That sort of money isn't easy to find for a small country community as we are, we really learnt how to lobby, we learnt how to sit on people's doorsteps - that's just part and parcel of being a councillor," Cr Meyer said.
"We have to stand up as country communities and demand our share of monies that are being ploughed into metropolitan areas at the moment, this is the only way we're going to survive as country communities."
Federal Member for Farrer Sussan Ley said 21 jobs were created over the life of the project.
"It's terrific, it gets the heavy vehicles out of town where Henty people absolutely have the best quality of life and they don't need B doubles in the middle of it," she said.
"And it allows our farmers speedy and efficient access to silos during grain harvest and that matters a lot to the economy of every single producer in this region."
Member for Albury Justin Clancy said it was great to see the three levels of government come together.
"This is such a great project... it's really important for our grain freight but just as important for the Henty community, increasing safety along Sladen Street is something that Greater Hume has been passionate in advocating for along with farming communities," he said.
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