February 23, 2015
Centre parking will disappear from Nanango’s Drayton Street in the middle of next month when work begins on the final section of the town’s CBD upgrade.
When the $1.2 million project is completed in September, there will be 20 fewer parking spaces in Drayton Street than there are now but this will be compensated for by the extra spaces already created in the Scott Car Park.
However, the street will have a stylish new look, new angled parking bays, and a roundabout at the Fitzroy Street intersection to improve safety for drivers and pedestrians.
There will also be a median strip running most of the length of Drayton Street to help calm traffic.
A meeting of CBD traders at the Nanango Cultural Centre last Wednesday night heard the South Burnett Regional Council would be dedicating work crews to the project “until it’s finished”.
Council will also be trying to minimise disruption to shoppers while the upgrade is happening.
SBRC Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said Council was very conscious that Nanango residents relied on easy access to Drayton and Fitzroy streets for shopping and that Drayton Street was a main road.
He said the project was designed to be implemented in four stages in an effort to ensure that businesses would be inconvenienced as little as possible.
The meeting was called to give business owners a walk-through of the upgrade plans and schedules, as well as the opportunity to ask questions or make suggestions before work begins.
Mayor Kratzmann, Cr Barry Green, Manager Design & Technical Services James D’Arcy, Natural Resources Manager Greg Griffiths and Manager Roads & Drainage Jeff Stephan all addressed the audience.
Cr Green opened the meeting by apologising for the delays that have put the project behind its original schedule.
The installation of the Drayton Street traffic lights, the need to undertake major upgrades to the CBD’s 60-year-old water and sewer mains, a long wait for permission to install a roundabout at the Fitzroy/Drayton Street intersection and the unavailability of work crews had all contributed to the project slipping behind schedule, he said.
“However, once we start work on this our crews will be staying here until the job is done.”
Cr Green said Council was spending about $7 million in Nanango on roadworks, CBD beautification, the Scott Car Park, the new Drayton Street bridge, Nanango Cemetery, an upgrade to the Racecourse Road entrance and other civic projects.
“This would have been impossible without amalgamation,” he told the 30 people in attendance.
Design & Technical Services Manger James D’Arcy then explained a series of engineering drawings showing the different parts of the upgrade, which will be carried out north of the Drayton Street traffic lights to Gipps Street, and along Fitzroy Street.
The main features of the upgrade were the:
- Conversion of Little Drayton Street, Alexander Lane, Palace Lane and Howlett Lane into one-way roads
- Removal of central parking bays in favour of 30-degree and 45-degree angled parking spaces along most of Drayton Street, although a few existing parallel parking bays would be retained
- Installation of three zebra crossings in Fitzroy Street
- Installation of multiple pedestrian crossing areas along Drayton Street
- Creation of “build-outs” at several locations along Drayton street which would provide bench seating
- Installation of a roundabout at the junction of Fitzroy and Drayton streets to improve pedestrian safety and help calm traffic in the CBD area
- Replacement of the central parking areas with a median strip housing the existing street lights, along with gardens and trees
Mr D’Arcy said the changes would mean 20 parking spaces would be lost between Drayton and Gipps streets, but these would be compensated by the extra 25 parking spaces which had been created when the Scott Car Park was upgraded last year.
In response to concerns from some traders that elderly people found the Scott Car Park too far from the shops, Mayor Kratzmann suggested more CBD car spaces could be freed up if Nanango traders asked their staff to park in the car park rather than Drayton or Fitzroy streets.
A couple of audience members suggested another option might be for Council to establish a three-hour parking limit in Nanango’s CBD during business hours.
The Mayor said this was an option, but Council did not have the resources to police it, so he would prefer if traders tried asking their staff to park in Scott Car Park first.
Roads & Drainage Manger Jeff Stephan said crews would work on certain parts of the project in small bites because the concrete they would be laying needed to cure for several days.
Cr Green warned the latest schedule was subject to work crews not uncovering any “surprises” as work proceeded, such as an unmarked Telstra cable recently found during upgrades to Kingaroy’s River Road which had delayed that project by more than a fortnight.
Natural Resources Manager Greg Griffiths said evergreen trees would be used for garden areas after shopkeepers had raised concerns at earlier public consultations about deciduous trees creating leaf litter during the cooler months.
And shelters that will be erected at some of the “build-outs” will have partially open roofs in answer to concerns from other traders that evergreens might make the town’s centre too cold.
The shelters would allow shoppers to sit in shade during summer, but sit in sunny areas during winter.
Engineering Drawings:
- Henry Street Intersection (830kb PDF)
- Fitzroy Street Intersection (1.4Mb PDF)
- Fitzroy Street to Gipps Street (1.1Mb PDF)
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