North Creek Road and Bridge

Submissions closed Wednesday 24 September 2025.

Ballina Shire Council sought feedback on the Concept Design, Cost Estimate and preliminary impact assessment reports for the North Creek Road and Bridge project from August to September 2025.

This project will involve:

• Reconstruction, widening and raising of North Creek Road between Forest Oak Boulevard in North Ballina and Skennars Head Road in Skennars Head
• Provision of an adjacent new shared pedestrian/cycle path
• Construction of a new bridge across North Creek.

The new bridge will re-establish the previous western road link between Ballina and Lennox Head that was severed in the 1970s following construction of the alternative Coast Road.

Council’s Roads Contributions Plan and Strategic Road Network modelling identifies this project as a required link to accommodate future traffic volumes generated by urban growth areas, and to minimise existing congestion on roads between Lennox Head and Ballina.

Next Steps

Community feedback was collated and reported to the December council meeting where Council considered the concept design, cost estimate, environmental impacts, landowner and community feedback. A report on the project and submissions is in Item 10.1 of the 11 December 2025 Council meeting agenda. Copies of submissions are available to view on the Agendas and Minutes page of Council's website.

After considering the report and submissions Council formally resolved:

1. That Council endorses the exhibited concept design for the North Creek Road and Bridge project, subject to adopting the changes to the concept design, and future stages of the project as set out in the “Proposed Action” column of Tables 1-9 of this report.

2. That Council defers a decision to retain or discard the North Creek Road and Bridge Project, with an estimated cost of $72.5m, until a further report is presented to Council in 2026 on recommended amendments to the Ballina Shire Roads Contribution Plan. This report will be informed by Traffic modelling of the Ballina Shire Road Network currently being conducted by Bitzios Consulting for the period to 2046.

The project to model the traffic volumes on the Ballina Shire Road Network in the year 2046 is expected to be completed around March 2026. A report will then be prepared for Council on options to optimise the future road network.

These options will consider, on a whole of network basis, the merits of including the North Creek Road and Bridge Project and many other road projects in the future road network.