Kempsey Armidale Rd's $227 million funding boost

The rest of the time there is a 4.3 tonne road limit, which has been in place on and off since October 21, 2020.

This means if beef producers want to sell cattle in the saleyards they have to cart them one by one on a trailer hitched to a ute.

Now the NSW government has announced $227 million in funding to fix the 43 kilometre stretch of Armidale Road, west of Kempsey, two years after Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall initially announced the government would fund repairs.

It's been a long haul for the region's farmers, along with the local logging and tourism industry.

Upper Macleay beef producer Shane Booth said the road had been damaged from the 2019 bushfires as well as flooding rain.

Mr Booth said the $227m in funding would include restorations of the road that would be returned to pre-disaster conditions. This means it will still be a dirt road and will remain single lane in some sections.

"They are spending $227m and we are not getting a much better road than we had prior to the fires," Mr Booth said.

While it is understood tenders had been received by Armidale Regional Council, it would not be announced until the end of the year who won the road job.

Mr Booth said they had been told work would not commence until April next year, just after an election.

"They won't commit to when work will start. That's a long to wait when we have already been waiting so long," he said.

"You won't get to see tar or nice roadworks, they are just wasting taxpayers money.

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"The politicians need to look at these councils and make them accountable for what they spend money on."

In the meantime, he said people who wanted to sell their property had no interest due to the condition of the roads.

"You can't bring people up here to sell as no one is interested in buying property unless the road is fixed," he said.

Rodney Gray, who also lives along the road, said with the proposed hydro plant to be developed there would be 600 to 1000 workers.

"That's a lot of movement on the road and we are frightened it will be destroyed," he said.

Questions put to Roads Minister Sam Farraway were referred to Transport for NSW.

A Transport for NSW spokesperson said the money was given to Armidale Regional Council and it was expected that work was likely to start before the 2022/23 financial year.

The spokesperson said a number of tenders had been received and an assessment will be made before the final council meeting of 2022.

"Kempsey Armidale Road was impacted severely by a series of natural disasters including bushfires in late 2019 and torrential rain in early 2020, that resulted in multiple landslips requiring the road to be subject to a series of closures and weight restrictions," the spokesperson said.

Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall said residents in the Lower Creek area, travellers and even contractors engaged to repair damage, were left isolated and cut off as land slips, washouts and fallen timber repeatedly blocked the main access between Armidale and Kempsey.

"I acknowledge the damaged road has caused many frustrations and difficulties for the Lower Creek community and other residents further into the Kempsey Shire," Mr Marshall said.

Armidale Mayor Sam Coupland said the Kempsey-Armidale Road was an important link between the Northern Tablelands and the coast.

"We have seen over the past couple of years how some of the west-east routes can be impacted by extreme conditions so it will be fantastic to have this road fully operational again," Cr Coupland said.

The weight limit will continue until the completion of this contract, which is expected to take a minimum of two years.

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