Katherine Mayor Elisabeth Clark has said a second high-level bridge is crucial to prevent an economic standstill as experienced in the Kimberley region after Fitzroy Crossing bridge was destroyed when ex-tropical cyclone Ellie devastated the region last month.

Ms Clark, together with the Katherine Town Council, is calling for plans to build a second high-level bridge to be fast-tracked, saying that the government’s planned construction of a second bridge over the Katherine River sometime in the next decade was not soon enough.

“We need to start planning for this now. If access to our current bridge is lost, all of the Territory’s resources south of Katherine come to a standstill. Unprecedented is heard too often these days and 15 years is too far away,” she told the NT News.

Katherine’s current 20-metre high Eugene Betti Bridge is the only heavy vehicle access route over Katherine River from the north which is open year-round and to all vehicles.

The Big Rivers Regional Economic Growth plan by the NT Government affirms that substantial defence investment in the region “warrants the necessity of an alternate heavy vehicle route corridor including a second high-level crossing over the Katherine River”.

It also says that a single route poses a risk to supply chain networks and increased demand for transport infrastructure, thus setting a goal to commence the process of obtaining land for the bridge by 2025 and starting construction “towards 2030”.

While the council has yet to give a proposal of how high the second bridge should be, Katherine councillor Denis Coburn said the new bridge should be higher than the current bridge Bridge, because the Stuart Hwy south of Katherine was cut off twice last year.

“Everything stopped – Darwin experienced delays and the grocery shelves went bare. We want to fortify Katherine, and the Territory, for the future with this important piece of infrastructure,” Mr Coburn said.

The Western Australian government has been assessing the Fitzroy River Bridge on the Great Northern Highway, between Broome and Halls Creek, after in collapsed after being hit with record floods, blocking the main. trucking route connecting Western Australia and the Northern Territory.