Tick, tick tick… Kernot Bridge timber promised for Monday

MONDAY this week is scheduled to be a momentous day for the people of Kernot and district.

It’s the day when the long-awaited materials for the reconstruction of the Stewart Road Bridge are due to arrive on the Melbourne docks.

They include a shipment of Glulam timber which departed the USA on September 12.

The new bridge deck structure has been assembled and test fitted in America before being shipped to Australia, “ensuring a smoother and faster installation on site later this year” according to council.

Time will tell.

The bridge has been closed to all traffic since March 7, 2025.

But six months of inconvenience turned to anger in November after paramedics were delayed by 15 minutes during a life-threatening medical emergency because of the closed bridge.

Seventy Kernot landholders, residents and farmers protested at the bridge a week later where they were joined by then Bass Coast Mayor Cr Rochelle Halstead, now Liberal candidate for Bass and local councillors Jan Thompson and Mat Morgan also now a candidate in the upcoming election, in the Upper House electorate of Eastern Victoria.

Ms Halstead acknowledged the community frustration with the process, the inconvenience of “a long detour” and the concerns about emergency service delays.

This close to another fire season, the community is not in the mood for further delays – the timber was to arrive in Melbourne on Monday, October 19.

They’ll be looking for confirmation.

In a project update on the Engage Bass Coast website, on October 1, council said site works had commenced and a Melbourne Water permit for works in the waterway had been received.

“The anticipated completion is in early December subject to favourable weather,” said the council.