The estimated cost of repairing public infrastructure in the flood-ravaged Northern Rivers region is now almost $8 billion and is expected to keep increasing.
About 250 trade, industry and government representatives attended a conference in Tweed Heads today to be briefed on the rollout of infrastructure spending in the wake of last year's natural disaster.
The invitation to the event referred to a $6b spend, but today that figure was revised to $7.9b.
Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation head David Witherdin said that was to be expected.
"That's grown from even earlier this year, from about $3.5 billion, and will continue to be refined over time," he said.
"Certainly no blowouts, as such.
"These are our best estimates of the tasks we've got ahead of us — more than 2,500 projects, so the enormity of what we're dealing with here is really significant."
Hundreds of landslips
Mr Witherdin said the repair of transport infrastructure was the biggest expense.
"Particularly landslips," he said.
"We've got hundreds of those — some really challenging geo-technical conditions."
Mr Witherdin said prioritising the right projects was a key focus.
"We can't do everything right now, and we certainly don't have the funding to do it all right now," he said.
"But we need to do the most important things first and really maximise the value for money."
Mr Witherdin said it was "highly likely" the final cost of the region's rebuild would probably exceed $8b.
