THE rickety Westmoor Bridge on Cressy's Powranna Road will soon be a thing of the past, thanks to almost $1 million in federal funds.
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Tasmania will receive $4.5 million from the first round of the government's new Bridges to Renewal program.
Northern Midlands Mayor David Downie yesterday said the funds would shore up the future of the single-lane, flood-prone bridge.
The funds will also act as an offset to funds lost through the freeze of indexation of the federal Financial Assistance Grants, Cr Downie said.
"We should have the bridge replaced by about this time next year ... it will be raised by about a metre," he said.
"Wooden bridges need to be maintained. Replacing it with a concrete bridge will mean that we won't have to maintain it for about another 100 years."
Cr Downie said the council now only had three major bridges that had not been converted to concrete.
Lyons Liberal MHR Eric Hutchinson said the upgrade would benefit industries, such as Cressy's Tasman Quality Meats, Burlington Berries and the Petuna Seafood hatchery.
"The government has also contributed $3.3 million to constructing two new bridges at Avoca," Mr Hutchinson said.
The first round of funding will see $114 million spent across Australia and a total of $300 million would be pledged for the next five years.
