Geoff Helisma

Clarence Valley Council’s general manager Ashley Lindsay’s responded to several questions regarding the NSW Government’s Fixing Country Bridges (FCB) program.

Independent: Will existing CVC field staff be working on these projects, or will additional labour be sought for the projects?

Ashley Lindsay: Yes, CVC field staff will be working on some of the FCB projects. At this stage they will only be constructing the six projects that were planned to be in the capital works program for 2020/21 and 2021/22. The projects that are additional to these are expected to be delivered using contractors.

I: In employment terms, will the projects create more jobs in the Clarence Valley for the 2-year term of the project?

AL: There are expected to be four additional staff to project-manage the delivery for the two-year term. The 25 of 31 bridges to be delivered by contractors are also expected to generate jobs in the Clarence Valley.

I: If so, is there an estimate of how many jobs and if so, what is that number?

AL: The number of jobs created by Contractors for delivery of the 25 of 31 bridges is not known yet. At this stage with the bridges, we don’t have detailed designs and therefore the method of construction (and thus number of people) is not known.

I: If additional workers are needed, will they be employed by CVC or supplied via a third party (labour hire firm for example)?

AL: The four staff project-managing delivery are expected to be employed by CVC. It will be up to the contractors who are engaged to deliver construction of the bridges to determine how they engage labour.