More than $400 million in state and federal funding is being poured into Kempsey Road as part of a major operation to rebuild the disaster-hit corridor.
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The council-managed road, which links Armidale to the Macleay Valley, sustained significant damage during the 2019 bushfires and again in 2020 and 2022 when flooding rendered the road impassable.
Various emergency works have been carried out since the natural disasters to repair landslips, but the road remains closed to the general public.
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Residents can access the road for essential travel, along with emergency vehicles, although restrictions still apply under these circumstances.
The $408 million reconstruction project, which is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, will restore 43 km of the Kempsey to Armidale road and 5.1 km of Lower Creek Road to pre-disaster condition.
Additional projects will also be carried out on sections of the road at Blackbird Flat, Flying Fox and Big Hill during the same period to improve the road's resilience in case of future natural disasters.
The works have been given state government approval and will be funded through the Fixing Local Roads and Fixing Country Roads programs.
Armidale Regional Council has already signalled its desire to relinquish management of Kempsey Road to the state government after the major restoration works are complete.
The road, which residents have previously described as a third world country mountain track, was handed to council after being downgraded from regional to local status more than a decade ago.
A letter from the NSW transport department to Armidale Regional Council General Manager James Roncon suggests the rehabilitation project will take until at least mid-2025 to complete.
Transport for NSW region director Anna Zycki said the department would facilitate the road's transfer "at the earliest possible time following the completion of the disaster recovery works".
"So as not to interfere with this vital recovery work, Transport for NSW will not begin the process of transferring the road until the completion of that work," she wrote in the letter.
"Transport for NSW understands that this Disaster Recovery work is of the utmost importance to bring the road back to working order for the users who rely on Kempsey-Armidale Road."
The Kempsey Road reconstruction project is the single largest road project ever undertaken by a NSW council.
"It's a road we inherited and we are pretty keen to give it back to the NSW Government," Mr Roncon said.
"ARC is now building the right staffing and resource base and is well and truly up to the challenge and will pass the baton to the NSW Government once we've successfully delivered the project."
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