The bridge had been closed to traffic during the week from 9am to 3.30pm over the past two weeks while emergency reinforcing of the southern end of the bridge was carried out.

Even though the temporary closure of the bridge was very well sign posted on all approaches, the work crews still had to deal with travellers confronted with closed bridge.

But as shire roads and bridge assets manage Graeme Williams explains it was a minor victory in what will be an ongoing battle to save one of the four remaining much loved timber bridges on the Bermagui to Tathra Road.

About two dozen 8-metre steel poles were pile driven along the centre of the bridge, down through sand into the bedrock reinforcing the tressles, with work costing around $180,000 that will be part of council's natural disaster funding application.

Work will continue for at least another 10 days welding and bracing the new supports before the 10-tonne limit can be removed.

An important consideration when a tourist bus could weigh as much as 25 tonnes.

And the new steel work was still only considered temporary as the "harsh salt environment" meant a more permanent solution was needed.

Mr Williams said council wanted to save the timber bridges wherever possible and he was saddened by the loss of the Paddy Otten bridge on Upper Cobargo Road during the flood.

One possible solution was reinforcing the structure under the timber bridges with galvanised telephone poles supplied by BHP as was the case with the Sandy Creek bridge at Tanja.

There was a bridge replacement program through the Roads and Traffic Authority but replacing the timber bridges with a concrete structure would be an unpopular move.

Mr Williams said while timber was not always easy to source these days, there were new technologies such as the special plywood used some years back on the new bridge at Brockelos Creek just down the road.

Further down the road to Tathra, the road either side of the Murrah timber bridge were stripped bare of bitumen by the raging flood waters, but both this and the Wapengo bridge survived the flooding despite being completely submerged.

Mr Williams said once the Cuttagee bridge was able to bear the weight, works crews would bring in the gravel from near Bermagui needed to repair the road either side of the Murrah bridge.