City Walk in Civic will be transformed in time for spring. Photo: File.
Shopping centres across Canberra will be given a refresh as part of more government stimulus spending, which will also include a facelift for City Walk in Civic and a feasibility study for an upgrade of the Kippax Group Centre.
Minister for City Services Chris Steel said almost $9 million will be spent improving the look and feel of the city with refresh works to 14 local shopping centres and the city centre, new public toilets and increased maintenance activities such as weeding.
“This broad package of work is designed to improve Canberra’s public spaces, but also to create employment when our city really needs it,” he said.
“This is labour-intensive work in construction and maintenance which will support more jobs and help to keep Canberrans in employment as the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues.”
Shops in Gordon, Hackett, Kaleen East, Macgregor, Macquarie, North Lyneham, Page, Weetangera, the two local shops in Spence and three local shops in Kambah will be refreshed.
The refresh works will aim to improve safety and access and provide better seating, landscaping and other facilities that encourage people to spend more time in these public spaces.
Mr Steel said City Walk would be transformed with gardens and lawn areas between Garema Place and Ainslie Place, involving the installation of more than 3000 new plants including 14 new replacement trees, 630 square metres of lawn areas, new paving, better lighting and new furniture.
A feasibility study will look at ways to improve public amenity at Kippax Group centre. Photo: File.
The feasibility study for the Kippax Group Centre will respond to the community feedback received in the development of the Kippax Group Centre Master Plan.
Mr Steel said it would look at creating a community hub and central plaza area for the centre with active meeting places, a reconfigured car park layout and better pedestrian and cyclist connections to and within the centre.
Also in Belconnen, the public toilets at John Knight Memorial Park will be replaced and better positioned to use natural light and ventilation, with modern facilities that use less water.
A new toilet will also be constructed at Lake Tuggeranong to support recreation around the whole lake and support surrounding facilities.
Mr Steel said the stimulus package also provides additional funding for maintenance works including more weeding, an enhanced cleaning program for pollution traps and asphalt patching ahead of the 2020-21 road resurfacing program.
Six new staff will be employed to increase weeding at prominent sites such as along arterial roads including road median barriers and near bollards and signs.
An extra program will remove fallen leaves by hand from hard-to-reach areas that cannot be removed using street sweepers.
“Increased efforts to remove leaf litter and additional cleaning of gross pollutant traps which are the first water pollution control point in the stormwater network will improve the water quality of our lakes and ponds,” Mr Steel said.
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