Dubbo Regional Council decided to hold a survey on the bridge to gauge the public’s response on the plan to construct it at River Street.

There were 2603 responses from the community. Of those, 31 per cent said they supported the River Street option, while 69 per cent said they were against it.

In a separate question on the survey, 93 per cent of respondents said they supported the construction of a ring road or a bypass to the west of Dubbo that included a flood-proof crossing of the Macquarie River.

However, Member for Dubbo Troy Grant said the River Street option wasn’t for traffic congestion but as a second flood crossing.

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The highest number of respondents at 51 per cent said the highest priority for the third bridge was to reduce congestion on the existing LH Ford and Serisier bridges.

The second most popular item was for the bridge to create a flood-proof bypass for trucks and traffic travelling on the Newell Highway.

Mayor Ben Shields is against the idea of constructing the third bridge at River Street. He said the NSW government needed to address the issue of the Whylandra Street congestion.

“Every day, particularly around school times, the backlog of getting across that roundabout and through the LH Ford bridge is horrendous. They say the traffic lights will fix this but I don’t buy that. They need a better system in pace to address that backlog,” he said.

Cr Shields said action need to be taken now before the construction of the bridge began.

“If they build this proposal with out substantial changes, this will strangle Dubbo traffic for years to come,” he said.

Mr Grant said it was not the role of the bridge.

“The state government has been very clear all along that River Street is designed to provide a second flood crossing for the city of Dubbo and allows traffic to cross the Macquarie River into north Dubbo. The LH Ford Bridge currently allows traffic to cross into the CBD and south Dubbo in the event of a flood,” Mr Grant said.

“When it comes to the issue of day-to-day congestion and a ring road or bypass option, the state government is already investigating the viability of a link between Tomingley and Eumungerie that will take away heavy vehicles and traffic that doesn’t necessarily need to come through Dubbo.”

Mr Grant said it was an issue Nationals candidate Dugald Saunders would be taking to next year’s election.

“If Dubbo Regional Council doesn’t like that, I would suggest they should look into funding their own bypass, similar to what Orange City Council did when it built the Northern Distributor to provide access to the northern parts of Orange and to provide an alternative route to keep heavy vehicles from the CBD,” he said.