DESPITE an average appearance, Corangamite Shire has assured motorists the Castle Carey Road bridge is safe.
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The single lane, timber bridge with its winding approaches crosses Mount Emu Creek along the popular route between Mortlake and Camperdown and has been a source of community contention for years.
In recent weeks complaints about the appearance of the bridge deck have led to some regular uses questioning its safety, but Corangamite Shire director of works and services Alex Green said it was safe, despite not looking the best.
He said regular bridge inspections in the past few weeks had found the timber deck had become loose.
“Crews have been and tightened the deck,” Mr Green said.
“The bridge is in a fair state, we concede it doesn’t look good, but it is safe.”
Mr Green said the road was not a designated B-double route.
“There was an accident on the bridge in the last six months that involved a B-double truck, so they do use the road,” he said.
“We would ask anyone who does see a B-double on that section of road to take note of the trucking company, then contact us so we can follow it up,” he said.
Mr Green said the council had allocated $50,000 in the 2014-15 budget for re-alignment design works and was finalising an application for federal government funding.
“Re-alignment of the bridge has been put back a few times because we have been waiting for funding,” he said.
“In the last 12 months a new federal government program called bridges to recovery has opened up. We are finalising our application for that funding now.”