Kyogle Council has received funding under the State Government’s Fixing Country Road’s Program to upgrade a 4.3km section of Culmaran Creek Road near Mallanganee and replace two old timber bridges.

One of the timber bridges to be replaced is also on Culmaran Creek Road, while the other one is on Needhams Road Tooloom.

As part of the Culmaran Creek Road project, Council will reconstruct and widen a 3.6km section of the road which is already bitumen and seal a 700m section which is currently gravel. The old single-lane timber bridge on the road will be replaced with a dual lane concrete bridge suitable for 19m B-doubles.

The old timber bridge on Needhams Road currently has a 25 tonne load limit. It will be replaced with a new concrete bridge which will have no weight restrictions.

Funding of the two projects was announced by Member for Lismore Thomas George who said the government’s investment in local roads and bridges would significantly reduce costs to business and industry, while driving economic growth.

“Economic growth in rural areas relies on agricultural commodities, industrial products and natural resources being able to move to market efficiently,” Mr George said.

Culmaran Creek Road services food processing and distribution company Mara Global Foods. The company’s owner and managing director Ross Larsson said the upgrade of the road would create more jobs and allow for increased production across the company’s two plants.

The two projects were among 67 projects across regional NSW approved for funding in the third round of the NSW Government’s Fixing Country Roads program.