Justin McCarthy, who grew up in Batemans Bay and attended Batemans Bay High School, has been involved with the project since its early design stage just over a year ago.

"It's exciting," he said. "When this opportunity came up, it was an easy one for me to take and get back close to family.

"Hopefully I'll deliver something iconic in my home town.

"It's a bit sad to see the old bridge go, but the new one will be a great structure as well."

Mr McCarthy's role keeps him extremely busy.

"As the project director, I coordinate all the design and construction activities for the job," he said. "I'm often at briefings with the work crews early in the mornings, then I'll got into meetings with clients.

"I have to manage a large team. We've got a staff of 50, and it takes a lot to make the team gel and get everyone in the right place at the right time.

"We also have another 140-odd people on site as construction workers."

Mr McCarthy said this was clearly the biggest project he'd seen in town, which brought some complications.

"We have to procure a lot of materials and subcontractors, and there's a lot of planning," he said. "Lift assessment is important, because there's a lot of heavy lifting with the cranes.

"I also have to do a lot of liaising with designers for the little changes that happen along the way."

Mr McCarthy hopes the project will have a positive impact on the community.

"We've had really good engagement with local workers so far," he said. "We've managed to get a lot of locals onto the project.

"We'll also provide some opportunities for kids to get work experience, and we'll do some work with the local high school to give them a taste of a big engineering project.

"It's something I didn't know a lot about until university, but with the STEM classes they do these days, they're much more aware of construction.

"To have something like this in their home town, I'm sure there will be a lot of interest."