Council moves forward with State Govt support on airport runway and new bridges

Bathurst Regional Council will be able to fast track around $3 million in infrastructure improvements thanks to the approval of Local Infrastructure Renewal Scheme (LIRS) funds from the NSW Government announced by Member for Bathurst Paul Toole.

The low interest loan funds totalling $3 million will be used for the upgrading of the runway at the Bathurst airport and for the replacement of a number of timber bridges in the rural areas in the region.

Deputy Mayor Cr Ian North said the loans are a big boost for Council with savings in interest of around $55,000 thanks to the low interest State Government loan.

"The loans will allow Council to move in the near future to undertake the much needed rehabilitation of the runway at the aerodrome and on replacement of a number of old timber bridges in the rural areas of the Region.

"This goes some way towards allowing Council to address the backlog in infrastructure that we are working on addressing in order to maintain our assets at the high level expected by our community."

Planning is well underway for the upgrading of the airport runway which will take another 12-18 months to finalise. Detailed designs are being finalised and consultation with airport users will begin soon as the works will require a closure of the runway for a number of weeks expected over December 2014/January 2015.

The NSW Government's $100 million LIRS provides subsidies to assist councils to meet the cost of financing their infrastructure backlogs and the scheme is expected to eventually unlock $1 billion in projects across the State.

For more information visit http://www.bathurst.nsw.gov.au/news-a-events/media-releases.html