The Forbes Men's Probus Club held their May meeting last month on Friday, May 24.

President David Nock opened the May meeting by welcoming 32 members and invited assistant secretary Trevor Drury to call for the apologies and read the minutes of the previous meeting which was moved and seconded.

Trevor then read the ingoing and outgoing correspondence.

President Neil the asked John Bruce to read the financial report which was seconded.

Alister Lockhart was then asked to present the welfare report followed by some 'words of wisdom'.

After making sure there was no other business President Neil announced morning tea.

After morning tea President Neil invited David Williams to introduce the guest speaker Alistair Lunn, the Manager of Central West Roads.

David was an appropriate person for this task as Alistair Lunn is David's son-in-law and a resident here in Forbes.

Alistair works from the Parkes Regional Office and is in charge of the huge area of the Central West.

At present he deals with the Newell Highway from West Wyalong to North of Parkes which has the most troublesome area North of Wyalong in the Bland Creek region, where the highway was closed for six weeks because of flooding in 2022.

The plan is to install box culverts to reduce the impact on road transport and reduce closed time considerably.

With the Geo-Tech and Environmental investigations the cost is around $140 million to achieve reduction to a two week closure.

The Parkes Bypass is estimated to be finished by 2025.

The longest bridge in the Central West at Dubbo will be 660 metres and completed by late 2025 or early 2026.

1.8 km long trains, are expected in 2027 and will be a challenge for the Highway crossings.

Alistair was inundated with questions, which he adequately answered.

President Neil invited Noel Jolliffe to accord the vote of thanks for Alistair's power point presentation and talk, and present him with a small token of the Club's appreciation.

This was followed by the expected applause.

Neil then announced that the speaker for the next meeting on June 28 will be Tegan Nock speaking on Carbon Credits.

The meeting was closed at 12.15pm.