![Wagga Council director of infrastructure services Warren Faulkner spoke about a wooden structure unearthed at the Trail Street-Johnston Street roundabout this week. Picture by Ash Smith Wagga Council director of infrastructure services Warren Faulkner spoke about a wooden structure unearthed at the Trail Street-Johnston Street roundabout this week. Picture by Ash Smith](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/172474527/577ef204-0084-44c0-9d4a-2a5e6e1eff37.jpg/r0_343_6720_4136_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The mysterious reason behind the closure of a busy Wagga intersection this week has come to light as the intersection partially reopened to traffic on Friday.
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There were peak-hour traffic disruptions after the roundabout of Trail and Johnston Streets by the Wollundry Lagoon was closed on Thursday morning.
The unexpected closure came barely a day after night works began to repair the road surface at the roundabout and the council has now revealed the reason was due to an historical find at the site.
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"Workers were conducting night works on the roundabout when they found an area which had some subsidence," Wagga Council general manager Peter Thompson said.
"While they were digging to further investigate that area they found a man-made wooden structure."
Mr Thompson said at that point it became evident the site could be of historical significance and works were stopped while a local first nations expert was engaged to inspect the structure.
However, on further investigation, it became evident that it was not of first nations origin but of European heritage as council also unearthed a brick footing beneath the wooden pipe-like structure.
qThe general manager said it's "likely to [date back to] the early European colonisation of this area" and that council has now engaged architects and archaeologists to help determine the identity and significance of the structure.
![The intersection of Trail and Johnston Streets is now partially reopen. Picture courtesy Wagga City Council The intersection of Trail and Johnston Streets is now partially reopen. Picture courtesy Wagga City Council](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/172474527/84a8d79d-fe27-42fa-8b1e-ea74f60ff19b.jpg/r0_447_2048_1600_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Hopefully [they can] offer an opinion as to what it might have been.. and then we'll make a decision about how we address that discovery," Mr Thompson said.
"There's a protocol when you find an historical item and we're really in the hands of someone who's an expert to tell us what to do, because it's not up to us to make a decision to destroy something that's of value to the community."
Director of infrastructure services Warren Faulkner said the wooden "pipe" was "not on any register."
Mr Faulkner said while workers unearthed about a metre and a half of the structure, they are yet to determine how far it extends underground.
In the meantime, council, unable to continue with the roadworks at the roundabout, reopened all of the roundabout except the northeast corner.
"Northbound traffic will have to turn left and go around the block," Mr Faulkner said.
"Westbound traffic can go straight through, but eastbound traffic must also go around the block."
Thursday's sudden road closure impacted traffic at the nearby Wagga Public School on Gurwood Street with buses forced to take u-turns at the corner of Johnston and Simmons Streets.
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