The man who was responsible for keeping Dubbo moving whenever there was a flood has given plans to build the River Street bridge across the Macquarie River a big thumbs up.
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For more than 20 years, Ian Bailey was an engineering manager at Dubbo City Council tasked with organising traffic management plans and getting people across the river during times of flood.
READ MORE: River street bridge plans are set
"I'm very confident that Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) has got the right solution for the issue of getting people across the river during floods," he said on Wednesday.
"The River Street bridge is a good solution for more efficient traffic management within the city of Dubbo during non-flood times as well.
"It's a good compromise between the needs of local traffic when floods aren't here, as well as providing a high-level solution for when floods are here."
Speaking ahead of the Friday deadline for residents to provide feedback on RMS infrastructure plans, Mr Bailey said he remembered the 2010 flood which caused traffic "gridlock" in Dubbo and the River Street bridge proposal was superior to suggested alternatives.
Duplication of the LH Ford Bridge would lead to more traffic being pushed into one part of Dubbo and the River Street bridge would spread the traffic out more, Mr Bailey said.
"Because the River Street bridge is separated from the LH Ford Bridge you're gonna have traffic on both bridges during floods," he said.
"Troy Bridge [a suggested alternative] is too far out of town to be useful for local traffic during non-flood times.
To give final feedback on the RMS plans for Dubbo, Mr Bailey was joined by RMS western region director Alistair Lunn, NSW Regional Roads Minister Paul Toole and state Member for Dubbo Dugald Saunders at the RMS pop-up shop's final day of operation in Macquarie Street.
"We anticipate there'll be 200 to 300 jobs created within the Dubbo community through this package of work, as a minimum," Mr Lunn said.
Subcontractors, suppliers of materials and accommodation providers were among the individuals and businesses set to benefit from the total $195 million RMS will invest in Dubbo infrastructure projects, Mr Lunn said.
In addition to building the River Street bridge, RMS will also replace roundabouts with traffic lights at intersections on the Mitchell and Newell highways, and Cobra and Fitzroy streets.
Mr Toole said about 400 people had given RMS feedback on the infrastructure projects and more than 1000 people visited the pop-up shop.
"These will all be taken on board and I know that RMS will be assessing them very carefully."
Each piece of feedback given will be responded to and incorporated into a final report to the state government.
Work to upgrade the Newell and Mitchell highways intersection is expected to start next year and construction of the River Street bridge is tipped to begin in 2022.
Mr Saunders said community feedback was "crucial in achieving the best designs for all infrastructure projects".
"The message has been heard that some refinements to the Newell and Mitchell highways intersection upgrade would benefit local businesses as well as local access," he said.
A Dubbo bypass was a separate issue that Mr Saunders said would be "something I'm happy to talk about in the future as we progress".
