Dubbo has always sold itself on being a 10-minute city.

Will the same still be said in 2040? Dubbo Regional Council's manager infrastructure and strategy Mark Johnston said it was something the organisation was working on.

"I think in the future it is achievable if we put the right roads and bridges in place. But it's going to be a challenge the more Dubbo grows, especially the core roads in the centre," he said.

"We'll try our best to keep that 10 minute city happening because everybody likes that it takes five minutes, 10 minutes to get to work."

By 2040, the population of the Dubbo local government area is expected to reach 65,697. The majority of the growth is expected in the city's west.

"The future population prediction is that development is moving to the west. We have a little bit of development still going in the east and the south east, but it's reaching its limits," Mr Johnston said.

"By 2040 we'll see a lot of population growth and development growth in west Dubbo so it really is around focusing on what infrastructure we need to support that growth."

One big piece of the infrastructure puzzle will be a new bridge in south Dubbo.

By 2040, Mr Johnston said the bride would be "critical" for getting people across the Macquarie River.

The council has narrowed down the bridge to two route options.

The first option is for a bridge that would go from the Minore Road intersection on the west, to Macquarie Street at the Tamworth intersection on the east. It has an estimated cost of $39 million.

The other favoured option in the report is for a bridge from Whylandra Street at the Dubbo Golf Club driveway on the west, to Macquarie Street at the Tamworth Street intersection in the east. The estimated cost would be $35 million.

"That bridge project is critical for getting future residents in south west and central west Dubbo across the river. That's probably one of the key challenges, getting west Dubbo residents across the river to go to work and take kids to school, and shopping and all those," Mr Johnston said.

Detailed businesses cases are being put together on bit options before it's decided which one will go ahead.

Mr Johnston said the other key projects in the transportation strategy would be the collector roads that link the north-west, central-west and south-west precincts.

The council is currently working on the River Street west collector road. It will link the New Dubbo Bridge - also known as the River Street bridge - with the Newell Highway.

Stage one will entail 900m of new road, including three roundabouts and an intersection with the Newell Highway.

It will be key for the north-west urban release area, where an expected 6000 homes will be built.

For the council's economic development and visitor services team leader Tim Nichols, it's the southern distributor relief road which will unlock Dubbo's potential. That road will link the Newell Highway and Sheraton Road.

"That's a huge one that we've been working on that will activate a whole lot of industrial, light industrial and commercial right behind Blueridge," Mr Nichols said.

The council is working on the acquisition of land for the link road and is chasing federal government funding.

"If we're successful with that funding that road's going to be built in the next 18 months," Mr Nichols said.

"That would open up well over 100 new industrial and commercial lots in that area... It'll become the next real economic hub of Dubbo."

But Mr Johnston said the council was focused on more than roads and bridges. Having the right infrastructure for water and sewer is also important.

He said an updated water and sewer model was being developed.

"We'll be looking at things like new water reservoirs to make sure people have plenty of drinking water, sewage trunk mains and pump stations to make sure no one sees it bubbling up as it makes its way to the sewer treatment plant. And obviously appropriate drainage strategies so people don't get flooded," Mr Johnston said.

But for all of the infrastructure the council has planned between now and 2040, Mr Johnston said the biggest challenge would be funding.

He said a big portion of the infrastructure built in Dubbo was also done by developers, and the way the council and those developers worked together was through developer contribution plans.

For example, as part of the work being undertaken at the former RAAF base, the developers were required to create a roundabout at the intersection of Palmer and Goode streets.

Mr Johnston said the council was working on the developer contribution plans for the west Dubbo precinct to make sure they had the right amount of money to pay for the infrastructure.

"The more tricky bit is actually striking the balance between making sure the right infrastructure is in place but that it's also affordable for the community because we can't just gold plate everything because otherwise the community developers can't afford to build it," he said.

The other challenge for the council is getting the appropriate strategies and models in place to predict the infrastructure that's needed.

"It's really about refining it down to say well, the road only needs to be this big or the storm water drain sewage pipe only needs to be this big to cater for development," Mr Johnston said.