Member for Katherine Willem Westra van Holthe met with a group of residents at Nixon’s Crossing on April 10 to make the long-awaited announcement and said it was part of a $2.75 million Northern Territory government investment in roads in the region.

“Our government will continue working with the Katherine Town Council by providing $1.5 million towards the upgrading of Nixon’s Crossing,” he told the Katherine Times.

Mr Westra van Holthe admitted flood-prone crossing had been a major issue for residents on the wrong side of it for countless wet seasons.

“What it will mean is that access to residents on the other side of Leight Creek only will be restricted to a just a few days a year, instead of sometimes, I know, months that they are cut off,” he said.

Design will begin on the bridge this year, with Mr Westra van Holthe telling residents construction works would commence  the following dry season.

Council chief executive officer Robert Jennings said the organisation had obtained more than $645,000 through the federal government’s Roads to Recovery program to contribute to the project.

Mayor Fay Miller said the council would have never been able to finance the much-needed project without collaboration with the Territory government.

“We didn’t have the funding to do it; council did not have the capacity to build that bridge on its own,” she said.

“I guess [the delay] was just searching for the funding.”