According to Councillor Benjamin Fry, this was just the starting point for a variety of works to be completed in the area.

The work is set to be completed in a series of phases, with short to long-term strategies in place to ensure the structural integrity of the road surface remains to a high standard.

"For the last 20 years, this area has been a problem for Eglinton, since they put a culvert in here and it began to collect silt over time," Cr Fry said.

The culvert, and the subsequent collection of silt, has resulted in an interrupted flow of water in the area, leading to immense drainage issues.

These issues have only been exacerbated in recent months, with heavy rainfall and flooding events further damaging the road surface.

"Over time it's gotten worse and worse, and we've seen recent flooding remove the pavement and really ruin this road massively," Cr Fry said.

"Our short-term fix is the re-paving of the road which has been done, and then there's the little temporary levees up the side of the road to try and redirect the flow water ... and pumping out the culvert to allowable standards."

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The resealing of the road is one step that council is happy to tick off their to-do list, with the pumping out of the culvert set to occur within the next few weeks.

"The midterm fix is stormwater excess drain changes," Cr Fry said.

"The massive storm water pipe which captures all of Eglinton and even Duramana Road, and pumps it out on the northern side, the upstream side of the culvert.

"That; we would like to move to the other side of the road which would cut out a lot of extra water trying to go under the culvert."

The design for this project is already in the pipeline, with engineering blueprints being developed, and costs being determined.

"Long-term fix - and we're looking for external sources of funding to help us with this - is some kind of system to raise this road to higher above what it is at the moment to allow better and greater water flow in heavy downpours and high flooding events," Cr Fry said.

These solutions are of utmost importance, as Eleven Mile Drive has proven to be a pivotal road connecting different Bathurst suburbs.

"We've seen this bit of road being used as a critical infrastructure point when we've seen a lot of other places cut off across town from the flooding," Cr Fry said.

"We're really lucky to have a high Rankens Bridge at Eglinton, which is a critical link between this side of town and the rest of the city, so it's important to maintain this particular funnel point to ensure that we can make safe travel during flood events for citizens of Bathurst."

Despite the work required along the road being quite extensive, the progress is all dependent on dry weather.

Dry conditions are also necessary to complete other much needed works throughout the city.

"We're hoping for a dry year so we can complete not just this work but roadworks that are desperately needed right across the region," Cr Fry said.

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