"Replace it within the year": 100-year-old Port Fairy bridge on borrowed time

On average, 4,000 vehicles cross Port Fairy’s Gipps Street bridge each day. As of last weekend, they’re now rolling over a patchwork of steel plates, after yet another hole opened up in the road’s surface.

The fresh damage has intensified calls for a full rebuild of the 100-year-old structure, with Moyne Shire Council sharing the community’s concerns.

Mayor Karen Foster told the West Vic Brolga the clock has been set on a necessary rebuild.

“It is certainly getting to the end of its life. It's not dangerous, though,” said Foster, who confirmed engineers are inspecting the bridge daily and temporary repairs were carried out on Tuesday.

“We know we need to replace it within the year.”

Traffic counts recently revealed the bridge, which connects South Beach with the town centre, sees thousands of vehicle movements per day – even when accounting for the summer peak.

“What we're seeing on the deck of the bridge at the moment is the bitumen that is on the surface is starting to fail,” she said. 

“It's certainly not likely at all that anyone's going to fall through a hole in the bridge into the water, but certainly we are patching up the holes in the bridge with big steel plates… so it is safe, but it's not ideal.”

The council has applied for funding through the federal government’s Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Fund and has set aside $2 million of their current budget as a contingency.

If unsuccessful, the council has “taken steps to access borrowing capacity of up to $10 million” to cover the cost of the rebuild, which is expected to cost roughly $7 million.

“That's not ideal, obviously, because it leaves us with a $5 million debt that we need to repay over the next few years, so that means it's going to have to come from somewhere. 

“Our budget is incredibly tight already, so it means we'll have to look at our services and some of the other things that we provide to redirect some funds to be able to repay that debt,” Foster said.

The mayor said she knew residents from other areas within the Moyne shire may not want to see their rates directed towards rebuilding the bridge.

“It’s always tricky in a shire like Moyne, because we're very large geographically, and rightfully people in other areas of the shire get a bit grumpy when their rates have to pay for a bridge in Port Fairy,” Foster said.

“We’ve tried every potential funding avenue and it all comes down to this one — we're really hoping.”