Councillors send clear message on flood-prone Gobba bridge duplication

At its fortnightly meeting on Monday, councillors considered a motion put forward by Councillor Richard Foley calling on them to receive a report and costing estimate on the construction of another Gobba Bridge built at the 1:20 flood level.

In the original motion, Cr Foley also said the final document or proposal should be used as part of a transport advocacy plan to state and federal governments for urgent funding.

He said the project was an "urgent need" that would increase access between the northern suburbs and the rest of Wagga.

However, councillors appeared to get cold feet at the thought of lowering their sights to even consider a lower bridge, with Cr Tim Koschel immediately proposing an alternative motion to again lobby the government on a Gobba Bridge duplication above the flood zone.

"We see enough cost shifting from the state government to local government," Cr Koschel said.

"More and more costs seem to be coming to us and the state government seems to be walking away from their responsibility when it comes to the community in helping with many different things.

"I think the duplication of the Gobba Bridge or another crossing, is just another one of those things."

Cr Koschel told the chamber he would "hate to see us spend one cent on something they should be...paying for".

"I think as a group of councillors we should be banding together unanimously sending a letter to the Transport Minister [Jenny Aitchison] and our local member Joe McGirr, saying... 'Tell us where you're up to,' and actually get it on the table."

Cr Koschel said the bridge duplication "should have been done" when it was originally built in 1997.

"If they had, I'd hate to see what the cost difference between now and then [would have been]," he said.

Cr Koschel said the council already has a "massive backlog" of road maintenance and an annual budget council is "struggling" to pay for.

"I'd rather we be looking after that [and] then telling the state government as a group from us and the community what they should actually be looking after," he said.

Cr Rod Kendall agreed, but also endorsed the intent of Cr Foley's original motion.

"Cr Foley... hit the nail on the head [when he said] that regional areas of NSW and Australia generally... and particularly regional cities, should not be copping and accepting second class infrastructure," Cr Kendall said.

"If we need to double the capacity of the Gobba Bridge, then it needs to be at a flood free height."

Cr Kendall said the existing "alternative route" through North Wagga has over time become quite difficult to access from anywhere by Boorooma Street via the Olympic Highway overpass.

He said the Roads and Maritime Service was to blame for this when they upgraded the Olympic Highway in conjunction with the construction of the Gobba Bridge.

"They cut the access from Old Narrandera Road, which used to go directly into Gardiner Street," he said.

"That movement [no longer exists]."

Cr Kendall revealed council had "recent discussions" about that intersection with the minister while talking through upgrades to the intersection of Old Narrandera Road and the Olympic Highway.

"One of the suggestions we as a group of councillors made was to ensure in upgrading that intersection, that allowance be made to enable a connection to Gardiner Street and the already existing secondary bridge over the river," he said.

But he said after that consultation, the council found out the minister had "cut all funding" to upgrades to the intersections both north and south of the River on the Olympic Highway and decided instead to fund the long-awaited widening of Marshall's Creek Bridge.

"That should have been done when I was a boy, let alone sometime in the next few years," Cr Kendall said.

He said it was important that the council does not advocate for "second-class infrastructure."

"[We must] continue to push for what we deserve and what we must get if we can continue to be a driver for the development of this state, as all of regional NSW is."

Cr Georgie Davies said a 1:20 flood-prone bridge is "not what Wagga needs."

"Traffic in the next 10 years is going to double. It already crawls along at 40km/h during peak hours.

"We need a duplication of the bridge at the current level."

But Cr Davies congratulated Cr Foley for putting the issue back on the agenda through this motion.

"I think he has done a really good job getting it back on the agenda," she said.

Councillors unanimously voted in favour of Cr Koschel's amendment, which included a resolution to write to transport minister Jenny Aitchison and Wagga MP Joe McGirr to seek an update on investigations into the feasibility of duplicating the Gobba Bridge.

In August 2022, the then-state Coalition government announced it would be looking at the necessity, cost and feasibility of duplicating the bridge over the next five years.