The Border Mail asked Mr Toole about the issue in Albury on Friday in the wake of the NSW Transport Minister supporting the so-called green route, west of the existing spans, in July.

"That was the first step, it was about getting the appropriate route identified, and now there will be further work taking action behind the scenes to work out what the next steps might be and to obviously look at a timeframe into the future," Mr Toole said.

Asked if that meant there was no existing timeline, the former Roads Minister said "there is a lot of work that has to take place".

"Having been involved in the building of bridges, the building of roads across the state, these are not projects that you can actually design and develop overnight," Mr Toole said.

"There's a bit of work involved in getting to a point where you can have those finalised plans."

That reply upset Green Route Community Group chairman and former Moira Shire mayor John Lawless.

"It is really disappointing and frustrating to get a non-committed response from the Deputy Premier on this important piece of infrastructure," Mr Lawless said.

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"The old bridge is 100 years old and battling with up to 10,000 vehicles a day, with the expansion of Thales munition factory and its involvement in the sovereign guided missile program and the rapid development of Mulwala and Yarrawonga it's hard to see how it will cope, especially with the weir bridge closed."

Mr Lawless said wrangling between state road authorities had cost the project at least five years.

He plans to meet staff of NSW Opposition leader Chris Minns during a trip to Sydney later this month with the state election looming in March.

Federation Council mayor Pat Bourke said a bridge design needed to be completed to then allow for a budget to be determined.

That in turn will help to bolster the process of lobbying for bridge funding from the Victorian and federal governments in addition to NSW.

"We'll certainly be putting pressure on both sides of government to keep up the rhythm and get on with the design work," Cr Bourke said on Sunday.

"We want to be rallying with Transport NSW as well to push the whole process."

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