RESIDENTS are building homemade bridges across Wolli Creek following the closure earlier this year of a footbridge in Turrella Reserve by Rockdale and Canterbury councils.
Nancy Rainbird, of Turrella, said one frustrated resident even put a sign on the bridge, which leads from the reserve to Turrella Railway Station, imploring the councils to get moving on its replacement.
‘‘It is the only access from Earlwood to the station, which goes to the airport, and people are dragging their luggage down the embankment and trying to jump the creek,’’ Mrs Rainbird said. ‘‘Locals have been putting planks down there to get across, but the council removes them, which I understand, but how long does it take to a fix a bridge?’’
It seems quite a long time, with a Rockdale Council spokesman telling the Leader the boarded up footbridge will not reopen until 2013.
‘‘Both Canterbury Council and Rockdale Council are jointly investigating suitable concepts for the replacement of the entire bridge with a new permanent structure that will carry both pedestrian and cyclist traffic,’’ the spokesman said.
A statement on the Canterbury Council website said there was now ‘‘no safe crossing of the creek’’ and warned residents against trying to cross it.
But few people appeared to take notice of the warning when the Leaderfvisited the footbridge recently.
Dogs, children and adults all tried their luck leaping across the water.
But not everyone can get across in this way and the closure has disadvantaged cyclists who used to ride across the bridge.
Rebecca Dingle, of Turrella, said she recently had knee surgery and could not jump across the creek while Kerryn Coldrey, also of Turrella, said she could no longer let her children play in the reserve unsupervised because she feared they could get hurt crossing the creek.
The Rockdale Council spokesman said the bridge would be demolished sometime before 2013 and tenders for the design and construction of a new bridge would ‘‘soon be published’’.
Should the councils build a bridge for residents to use?
