AS plans for the Tooleybuc Bridge replacement take shape, locals on the New South Wales side of the Murray River say they have been left in the dark by the State Government.
Current plans detailing the proposed “yellow option” distributed by the Department for Roads and Marine Services (RMS) show an overpass across Murray Street, without any off ramp or access to the main street of Tooleybuc.
Business owner Phil Caccaviello says if the preferred bridge option goes ahead his business and the town are destined to dwindle like many other by-passed country towns.
“If the off ramp is elevated we are stuffed,” he said
“We are 100 percent worried about traffic not coming into town.
“There will be no access for travellers to get off onto Murray Street so they’re going to look down and think, ‘there’s a nice town’ and keep going.
“We rely on the passing traffic so much – I reckon we’re buggered.”
A few hundred meters down the road Phil’s cousin Leon Caccaviello is at breaking point.
“What’s really giving us the shits is no one has told us what is going on,” he said.
“The bridge is going to be 15m from my fence, am I allowed to live like a troll under a bridge?
“The Victorians have been told where it’s going what is happening but we’ve been told nothing, I just want to know if I have to move or if not, what is happening.”
However, a spokesperson for RMS has denied a lack of communication, saying that the department “has been working with all affected property owners and businesses throughout the Tooleybuc Bridge Replacement project”.
For more of this story see Wednesday’s edition of The Guardian (Oct 21).
