Congo Road was closed in late 2021 after concerns from the landowner regarding culpability in the event of incidents occurring on the road.

Council is not able to indemnify the landowner against potential liability as the road is on private land.

The agenda for the council meeting recommends the councillors decide between two courses of action regarding the road.

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Option one:

"That the council take no further action regarding the potential establishment of a public road through Lot 197 DP752151 (Congo North) or any alternative route, noting that the village of Congo is serviced via Congo Road South and Bingie Road which is a sealed, all weather road."

If travelling from Moruya, the Congo Road North route is approximately 9.2km and takes approximately 9.5 minutes of travel time. The Congo Road South route is approximately 16km and takes approximately 13.5 minutes.

The second option councillors will consider is for the council to begin the process of constructing a new road through the private land in conjunction with the land owner.

The landowner is opposed to creating a public road reserve over the existing physical road and the council previously agreed with the landowner any new road reserve would not be over the existing physical road.

The landowner's strong preference is for any new road reserve to be across the northern edge of the private property.

The council documents suggest the construction of any road would cost $1 to 1.5 million, in addition to the costs of any environmental offsets for the loss of native habitat - which the council said were difficult to estimate without having completed a Review of Environmental Factors or an Environmental Impact Study. The council estimates it would cost more than $300,000 to complete these two tests.

Constructing a new road would take more than 12 months according to council estimates.