Hawkesbury residents voice their feedback on proposed new river crossing at North Richmond

Increased funding for the project was announced on Monday, June 7 with the State and Federal Governments doubling its investment to $500 million - $100 million from the state and $400 from the Commonwealth.

The preferred route ("green route"), of the five options, will involve a bypass of North Richmond connecting to a new two-lane bridge north of the existing bridge.

A new roadway will bypass Richmond to the south, connecting from Old Kurrajong Road to the Driftway.

The community were invited to give feedback this past week (on Wednesday and Saturday), with the original consultation period to end on July 5.

Transport for NSW announced on Thursday that it had extended the period for community feedback until August 2.

The community consultation session held on Wednesday night, June 16 at North Richmond Community Centre saw a large number of community members share their opinions, with reports of 200-300 residents were in attendance.

Richmond Lowlands resident, Rob Buchanan, acted as a community chairman for the meeting, relaying the community's sentiments to the Transport for NSW officials.

Mr Buchanan said that the venue was too small for the amount of people in attendance, so they convened outside, allowing the community to ask questions.

"The community asked its questions and Transport for NSW answered them," he said. "It was respectful, but there was a lot of emotion from the community.

"It wouldn't be conducive to have a shouting match, and everyone mostly remained respectful.

"We did a straw poll and of the around 300 people there, only three people agreed with the preferred route."

Mr Buchanan said he disagrees with the preferred route and would rather see the "purple route" adopted.

This would see the Driftway updated and a bypass built between Crowley's Lane and Grose River Road, leading back to Bells Line of Road.

"My view is there are underlying political reasons for the preferred option of the 'green route' and against the 'purple route'," he said.

"A feature of the green route is that it runs very close to hundreds of houses. The cost benefit ratio doesn't take into account the value of houses and peoples lives.

"It seems to have been selected from the cost benefit ratio analysis. A politically preferred route over the engineering preferred route."

Hawkesbury City Councillor Sarah Richards has been quizzed by residents since the recent additional funding announcement.

Last week she posted via her social media accounts information responding to questions she had been asked about why the "purple route" was not the preferred option.

"I had been asked repeatedly why didn't they [Transport for NSW] choose the 'purple route' and again it is not my decision to chose anything. I am not an engineer or a road designer," Cr Richards said.

"But because people had asked me ... I just put it in dot form as per the report."

Cr Richards said she was happy to see the community speaking up and that their voices were being heard by Transport for NSW.

"This is a major infrastructure project," she said. "So, if people want a little bit more time to get their thoughts together and put their views across then I would always encourage that transparency, accountability and community access."

Cr Richards was in attendance on Wednesday night.

She said that even though the consultation didn't match the expectation of some community members, she commended Transport for NSW staff for addressing the community.

"I think by the end of it [Transport for NSW] had presented quite a lot of facts and information," she said.

"I will be at all of those future dates ... so that I can talk to people and so they can talk to me as well."

Cr Richards said she hadn't seen detailed technical drawings until Wednesday's consultation and hoped that misinformation about the proposed plans ceased.

"There is a lot of misinformation out there in the community," she said. "I think people just need to stop throwing around accusations ... the misinformation just needs to stop.

"People need to remember that their local politicians are also local people.

"While there may be people out there who don't have a lot of faith in politics or politicians. I think when they're looking at their local politicians, we have everyone's best interests at heart, because we live among everyone as well."

Cr Richards reiterated sentiments of a Facebook post from Sunday evening, that if people had differing opinions they should be respected.

"I encourage everyone to get their feedback into Transport for NSW," she said.

"They're the ones that are making this decision. They're the ones that are collecting the community feedback and make sure your voice is heard in the proper forum."

Due to renewed COVID-19 precautions, the community consultation session scheduled for Saturday, June 19, was postponed, to be rescheduled at a later date.

An online information session will be held on Monday, June 28 from 4pm to 5pm on the NSW Roads Facebook page. For details regarding the project contact the project team at richmondbridge@transport.nsw.gov.au or call on 1800 370 778.