Henry Street Ready By Christmas

20141202 Henry Street, Nanango — A chainsaw sculpture and an avenue of deciduous pear trees that will change colour to reflect the seasons now welcomes visitors travelling into Nanango from the south

December 2, 2014

The Henry Street portion of Nanango’s CBD streetscaping project will be finished by Christmas, SBRC Cr Barry Green confirmed today.

Cr Green said most of the remaining work on Henry Street involved finishing off concrete enclosures for the street’s pear trees on the northern side of the Drayton Street traffic lights.

The town’s bus stop will be relocated to the front of the Energy Centre as part of the work.

Town entry signs will also be erected on the northern and southern approaches to the CBD.

Work on the Henry Street upgrades began in January this year with the removal of camphor laurel trees – a declared pest plant – which had lined part of the roadside for decades.

Council workmen then dug up the area to repair damage the camphor laurels had caused to pipes and other underground infrastructure in the area.

After this, they resealed the road before planting deciduous pear and plum trees along the roadside, then built concrete bollards around the tree bases to protect the trees and create parking bays and cycleways.

The project’s original schedule was delayed by the installation of traffic lights at the corner of Drayton and Henry Streets, which opened in May this year, and the need to reschedule Council staff to work around the traffic light project.

Cr Green said he was aware that the Henry Street upgrade work had annoyed some residents because it took longer to complete than originally expected.

“The place looked like a war zone for much longer than it should have,” Cr Green said.

But now the upgrade was drawing to a close, he’d received comments from residents who had earlier been critical of the delays saying they now felt the result was worthwhile.

Cr Green said he’d seen a similar turnaround in attitudes to the Drayton Street traffic lights over the past six months.

The lights had been opposed by some people when they were first suggested, Cr Green said; in fact, he had once opposed them himself.

But now they’d been installed he thought most people had grown to appreciate them, along with the added safety they brought to the town.

“Some people have even told me they now prefer going through the centre of town to use the lights rather than the bypass route because they feel it’s safer,” Cr Green said.

Work on Drayton Street, the final part of the Nanango CBD upgrade project, is expected to begin in February and be completed by June 30.

Cr Green said the biggest part of the work would be the construction of a roundabout at the corner of Drayton and Fitzroy streets.

Other work will include the construction of new garden beds, raising the existing pedestrian crossing and planting trees in the CBD area.

Cr Green believes the benefits of the streetscaping project will become apparent soon after the Drayton Street portion is finished.

However, the real benefits will become more obvious in future years once the trees grow and the new garden beds become firmly established.

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