Katy Gallagher has announced a Canberra City Area Action Plan 2010- 2016 (hopefully to be available on the Land and Property Services website soon). It promises to spend $26 million sprucing up Civic over the next two years before the all important 2013 Centenary of Canberra.
Included in the works to be undertaken are improvements to the public areas around the Sydney and Melbourne Buildings, City Walk between Ainslie Place and Akuna Street, Alinga Street between Marcus Clarke Street and West Row and Bunda Street between Northbourne Avenue and Mort Street.
The City Interchange toilets are also going to be upgraded.
Transport will be improved with the construction of a bus priority lane from Clunies Ross Street to the City Interchange and a new ANU/City West bus station.
There will be improvements to the cycleway on Northbourne Avenue and bus priority measures along the Gungahlin to city corridor will be determined.
During this time, master plans will be designed for City Walk between East Row and Allara Street, the Civic Square cultural precinct and Mort and Lonsdale Streets in Braddon.
Design work is going to be undertaken on the Edinburgh Avenue extension, a real time parking information system, pedestrian and bicycle access for Marcus Clarke Street and the investigation of pedestrian access to City Hill.
All of the work will be overseen by the newly appointed Coordinator Hamish McNulty, the Executive Director of Property and Strategic Projects in the Department of Land and Property Services.
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“Much of the infrastructure in the public domain is more than 40 years old and is no longer functional. Old concrete footpaths, inadequate lighting and outdated street furniture are simply not appropriate for the nation’s capital and the work to be undertaken in the next two years will go a long way to improving the look and feel of our city centre.”