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Key figures in reducing the dangers of a Dubbo weir have met as Dubbo City Council reports the project is "moving ahead well".
Senior council staff and Alluvium Consulting representatives gathered at the site of the South Dubbo weir yesterday, where survey pegs were already in place.
The council announced last week it had engaged the Victorian-based firm to design a rockfill ramp and fishway to improve safety at the river structure as part of its commitment to the coroner after the drowning death of James Kennedy in 2011.
Three Alluvium representatives travelled to Dubbo for an initial meeting with the council and NSW Public Works, the project manager.
Council technical services director Stewart McLeod said they had gone through some details, the aims of the design and any known constraints in what was a "nuts and bolts first meeting".
The director said the first job would be to do an options report, which is due for discussion in mid-November.
He said Alluvium was aware the council was budgeting $4.4 million for the project and it hoped to have the works completed by 2015-16.
"We're hoping to have designs and approvals done by the middle of next year, that's what everyone's aiming for," Mr McLeod said.
"It's a tight timeframe but everyone is moving with goodwill to do it as quickly as we can."
The director reported Alluvium had contracted local firms Barnson and Geolyse to do geo-technical and physical survey work.
"Being a Victorian-based firm they're better off using local surveyors and local geo-technical people to do the on-site work because it wouldn't be cost-effective for them to send someone from Victoria," Mr McLeod said.