The construction site on the corner of Moona Creek and Naval College roads has had its set-backs but is expected to be finished and ready for this year’s Christmas shoppers, weather permitting.

Woolworths development manager Wes Dose said it had taken five years of planning to get to the first stages of development.

“Woolworths has worked closely with the Shoalhaven City Council and is looking forward to delivering a fantastic, easily accessible retail destination for local residents,” he said.

“There will also be a lot of external work on the surrounding roads as well as on the development site.”

Mr Dose said Woolworths planned to give back the large portion of land which has been zoned as environmental land on the construction site back to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

“We are currently in negotiations to give it back to them for ongoing maintenance,” he said.

“This would extend Jervis Bay National Park.”

Vincentia’s Woolworths will be a 42,000 square metre block, larger than the Nowra Woolworths establishment.

Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis said this development has been a contentious issue well before her involvement.

“It’s great to see it finally under way,” she said.

“The development was scaled in size to suit the catchment area. At the moment there are around 12-15,000 [potential shoppers] and that number doubles during the holiday/Christmas period. We are also expecting an increase on 10-15,000 people moving to the Shoalhaven area in the next 10 years.

“These shoppers would ordinarily travel into Nowra for large shops.”

The first stage of the development will include a Woolworths supermarket with two other stages of development approved for the future to include more than 25 specialty retailers.

The new development is expected to create 150 jobs during the construction phase.