Lithgow City Council has announced today that their application for funding for the restoration of access to the Wolgan Valley has been approved in full. The Wolgan Valley has had restricted vehicle access since November 2022 due to the compounding effects on the access road from multiple declared natural disasters since 2019 severely impacting the Wolgan Valley Community. With the scale of the project far beyond any work ever undertaken by Lithgow City Council, the successful application for this funding is a significant achievement.
Lithgow City Council's Director Infrastructure and Project Delivery, Jonathon Edgecombe spoke about the challenges of securing the funding, saying, "Council's application for disaster recovery funding has not been a simple pathway to navigate."
Mr. Edgecombe continued by saying that during the stringent application process "Council and its project managers, Wassabi Group, have been subject to rigorous technical review and application assessments over a period of 12 months. Our application has demonstrated technical merit and cost effectiveness. I'm immensely pleased to see that the hard work has paid off."
The announcement was welcomed by Mayor Cassandra Coleman who said, "I am just so pleased with this outcome, it is evidence that when all three levels of Government work together to support the recovery of rural and remote communities after a disaster, fantastic outcomes can be achieved."
"This could not have been achieved without a strong partnership between Council, community, the NSW Government and Australian Governments," continued Mayor Coleman. "I sincerely thank Transport for NSW, the NSW Reconstruction Authority, and the Australian Government's National Emergency Management Agency for their ongoing support in working through what is one of the biggest single disaster recovery projects in the country."
This funding for the recovery of the Wolgan Road represents a maximum project value, funded by the NSW Government and Australian Government's under their Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. These funds cannot be spent on other projects in the LGA. Council must continue to meet stringent program requirements around time and cost effectiveness throughout the delivery of these initiatives.
"We now move forward to the next stage of work" said Mr. Edgecombe "A new slope risk assessment is underway, and three access options remain under consideration. We still have an unwavering commitment to deliver an access road with the best value for money, while balancing the sometimes competing interests of time, community interests, heritage, and environmental impact, as well as the Council's long-term operating costs. We will continue to work closely with Government and community to achieve these objectives."
