Work to start on Lord Baden Powell Drive and Old Narrandera Road

Lord Baden Powell Drive will be closed between Macleay Street and Captain Cook Drive from Wednesday August 9, with detours in place during the closure.

Local traffic, including visitors to the Museum of the Riverina Botanic Gardens site, will maintain access under traffic control.

In the city's north, a section of Old Narrandera Road and Pine Gully Road will have reduced speed limits, intermittent closures and detours until mid-October.

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The council's director of strategy and projects, Phil McMurray, said he understood the closures would be inconvenient for residents.

"There's a range of detours in place," he said.

"It's the roads heading east to west through Wagga that will take the majority of the flow. There's roads above and below the worksite that'll be highlighted for motorists to get across Wagga.

"We've been working really hard with the contractor to minimise disruptions, but it will take at least 12 weeks ... we're hoping the guys can get the work done as quickly as possible. If we can open it early, we certainly intend to."

The works on Lord Baden Powell Drive include reconstruction of the road and installing a pedestrian refuge crossing to link the Botanic Gardens to the Museum of the Riverina.

"We've got significant rock excavation that needs to be undertaken and significant drainage improvements to the road," Mr McMurray said.

"We've got to cross the road [Lord Baden Powell Drive] with major subsoil drains and link it with the longitudinal drainage network."

Two more lanes will be added to the section of Old Narrandera Road from just west of the Olympic Highway intersection to the Pine Gully Road intersection, as well as the installation of new signage, guardrails and dedicated turning lanes.

Mr McMurray said the planned works would provide significant upgrades that increase safety and reduce travel time.

"These projects are significant pavement designs which will stand the test of time over 30 years," he said.

The council is currently analysing the condition of all of Wagga's roads to triage those most in need of repair and calculate the total backlog.

Mr McMurray estimates the total bill would be in the hundreds of millions, but said more accurate information would be available in the coming weeks.

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