Greater Shepparton City Council approved the $782 000 tender that will start with a pathway near Lincoln Dve in South Shepparton and cross the Broken River.
Mayor Seema Abdullah said it would link the gardens to the new Shepparton Arts Museum, The Flats, KidsTown and Victoria Park Lake.
“You can imagine it will be a super destination for locals and visitors to enjoy this shared path network,” she said.
Councillor Dennis Patterson said it would be the first of "a lot" of pathways rolled out over the next few years by council.
“It will provide a beautiful walk through the bush and across the Broken River and into the botanical gardens,” he said.
“It's a unique-designed bridge; it came in well and truly under what we estimated it might be.
“It's a suspension (bridge), not unlike the one over the Goulburn behind Aquamoves, and certainly a piece of infrastructure we'll be able to use and open up a whole new area for bushwalking, walking and accessing the botanical gardens."
The approved budget estimation was $1.2 million. A construction and completion date is set to be finalised.
The bridge will be built by Fleetwood Urban of Wetherill Park, NSW.
Cr Abdullah defended council's decision to select a non-local company to build the bridge, after two Shepparton-based companies missed out during the tender process.
“Every tender is strictly analysed as per the criteria — so the current criteria around pricing, criteria around the local content, criteria around environment sustainability and also about the expertise and ability to deliver this project,” she said.
“This project was analysed, was assessed by the panel, and the panel decided based on the criteria that this was the best option ... to award this contract to this particular tenderer.
“We try as much as possible (to support Shepparton businesses). However, you have to be fair — in a sense that you have to be objective about the criteria.
“We have to make sure that the decisions are transparent and we follow the good governance rules, which is basically to follow the criteria, and then assess the tenders according to the criteria.
“As much as we want to be able to award contracts to local businesses, if the expertise or the capability does not match with others then we have to make a fair call.”
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