Is it Australia's most expensive roundabout?

MORE multimillion-dollar roundabouts could be on the horizon for Wagga. The decision to budget $2.85 million for the Glenfield Road and Dalman Parkway roundabout was yesterday defended by Wagga City Council as future proofing the city's traffic control.

Director of Infrastructure Services Terry Dodds said new technologies meant roundabouts costed more but lasted up to five times longer. Mr Dodds said the technology of geofabrics and roller compacted concrete would ensure the construction lasted and saved council thousands of dollars.

"Geofabric between the layers of road reinforces the tensile strength of the base while the roller compacted concrete takes the forces of traffic a lot better and doesn't react as badly to water," he said.

"It (million dollar cost) will become standard because we can't afford to keep building them (roundabouts) in the conventional manner.

"Using conventional techniques we have to spend $100,000 every six or seven years to maintain the roundabouts but the new technology will see them last as long as 30 years."

Mr Dodds said building roundabouts cheaply now would create a false economy as they continued to degrade due to an increasing population.

He said a conventional roundabout would cost only $700,000 less than the new style, however, The Daily Advertiser found a report from Cooma-Monaro Shire Council stating a roundabout could be built for just $600,000.Glenfield resident Graham Jackaman said the price was extreme but at least something was happening.

"I'm pleased it's finally happening even though almost $3 million is more than expected ... although no start date has been announced yet," he said.

"We nominated traffic lights as our preferred choice, however, the RTA and council decided a roundabout would be better so I only hope there is provision for lights in the future."

Included in the project are one-off costs associated with power supply relocation estimated at $139,000.

Adding to the original budget of $1.3 million is $407,500 for roller compacted concrete, $97,250 for a geogrid, $60,840 for guard railing and purchase of fill material costing $113,243.