Work is continuing to progress the repair of The Bight Bridge, Wingham and Tiri Bridge following their destruction in the May 2005 floods.
Both bridges were severely damaged during the record flood event.
MidCoast Council has investigated a number of options and are working with the Disaster Recovery Authority and other government agencies to ensure funding requirements are met.
MidCoast Council's Deputy Mayor, Jeremy Miller, said he understood how important reestablishing both bridges were to the communities that the outages affected.
"We understand these connections are vital to the communities they serve," he said.
"We have been ramping up talks with government agencies to come up with a suitable solution for the community.
"What needs to be considered is that these projects are almost always funded on a like for like basis."
This means that while ideally both bridges would be replaced with structures that were higher and more resilient to future flooding, that option may not attract funding and Council may be restricted to replacing the bridges at their current levels and alignments.
"In the meantime we will continue to press for betterment funding which means the rebuild can be done at a higher level with the intent that the situation is avoided in the future."
It could take between 12 months and two years before The Bight Bridge is open to traffic. The preferred option for Tiri Bridge includes investigating the possible installation of a temporary timber bridge before the construction of a permanent concrete bridge replacement.
While discussions with the government will continue Cr Miller said further structural assessments will be carried out on both bridges to determine the integrity of the remaining piers.
While these two bridges have significant repairs required as a result of the May flood, Council has revealed there are more than 21,000 defects that have been recorded across the road network as a result of the floods with nearly 1000 emergency work items identified.
The estimate to repair the damage caused by the floods is more than $270 million.
"This is a huge number, on top of the underfunding that our road network is already experiencing. We will be working as hard as we can to get the repairs funded to ensure the best outcome for our community."
Keep updated on the progress at http://www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/roadshub
