After nearly four months without a bridge and a 15km extra round trip into Stroud for some residents, Gortons Bridge over the Karuah River was officially opened last week.
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A new concrete bridge has been built to replace the old timber structure that was washed away by flooding in early 2013.
David Gorton and his family who live on the road just up from the bridge, said Great Lakes Councils installed a temporary bridge until August this year when the work began on the new one.
“It was a low-level timber bridge and it never took much for it to be covered by water during periods of heavy rain,” he said.
“The first bridge was built in 1926 and rebuilt when I was just a little kid.
“Then around 1985-86 it was rebuilt again and then half replaced in 2005.
“But the floods last year were exceptional and they just took it away.
“But now we have this new concrete one which has been built five foot higher than the old one.”
Great Lakes Council’s director of engineering services Ron Hartley said the single lane bridge has been designed for a 100 year design life.
"Maintenance requirements on the new concrete bridge will be significantly less than the cost to maintain the old timber structure,” he said.
"Natural Disaster relief funding to replace Gortons Crossing bridge has meant that council has not been left with the financial burden of replacing the bridge following the flooding.”