Transformational projects taking shape across Launceston

Published on 18 June 2018

The City of Launceston is progressing a number of exciting transformational projects around the city in 2018 on behalf of the residents of Northern Tasmania.

Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten said many of the projects currently underway would be finished by the end of the year.

"In recent years the Council has worked very hard to lobby on behalf of residents for support from other tiers of government to realise these important projects, and I'm delighted that many of these projects are now taking shape across Launceston," Mayor van Zetten said.

"The redevelopment of Civic Square has already been embraced by event organisers and families.

"Anyone walking past in recent weeks will have seen the way the space is being highly utilised by the general public.

"On fine days, people are taking advantage of the new seating and benches to catch up, read books, have a coffee, or watch their children enjoying the new play space.

"The play space has proven incredibly popular with children — it's a magnet. They are drawn to climb on it and explore it, and to push the various buttons and bells.

"Last week the smaller of the two catenary lighting systems was installed, and this week the larger catenary system over the playspace is being installed. This means various parts of the square are still being temporarily fenced off or re-opened from day to day, depending on the work underway.

"Something people will not yet have seen in Civic Square is the feature lighting systems being installed in the space. We expect to showcase this to the public at Red Goat's Launceston Night Market on Saturday, July 14. Held between 4pm and 10pm, this promises to be a great evening of live music, fine food and beverages, and a great opportunity to see the redevelopment first hand.

"The Civic Square redevelopment will be completed in July.

"In the Brisbane St Mall, work is continuing apace. Around 90 per cent of the underground infrastructure work has been completed to date. We expect paving to begin towards the end of June, with the paving starting at the Charles St end. The first canopy will be installed shortly afterwards. Once about half the paving has been laid, which we expect to occur towards the end of July, construction fencing will start to come down again in stages to open up more of the space.

"We expect the Brisbane St Mall redevelopment to be complete before the end of September.

"Down at North Bank, the pedestrian bridge link to the Seaport is well underway. After several months of off-site construction, the bridge is now being assembled on site. The largest twin spans were lifted into place this week, at 40m long and weighing eight tonnes apiece.

"We expect the bridge to be completed in early July.

 "At North Bank, we've recently awarded tenders for landscaping and play equipment installation. Off-site construction of various pieces of play equipment — including the 12-m tall Sky Walk — is now complete, and those pieces are in storage awaiting installation. We expect the contractors to establish themselves on site in the last week of July.

"Boral are on schedule to begin the commissioning of their new plant towards the end of June. Both the old and new plants will be run concurrently for a few weeks to iron out any teething issues with the new plant. Demobilisation of the old plant is expected towards the end of July. Our demolition contractors will then establish on site for a six-week demolitions program.

"We expect the North Bank project to be complete by Christmas.

"Meanwhile, we have been working hard to prepare the tender documentation for a major upgrade of the playspace at the Cataract Gorge. We expect to advertise the tenders for this exciting project in coming weeks, and plan to construct over the winter months so that the area is in top condition for the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards which will be held in Launceston on Friday, March 1, 2019.

"We expect the Cataract Gorge playspace upgrade to be complete early in the new year.

"One of the city's oldest buildings is also about to get a new lease on life.

"The Council has formally awarded the tender for the redevelopment of Macquarie House into a major new innovation and technology hub.

"We'll be finalising our timeframes for this project in coming weeks, but currently we expect work to begin in the final quarter of 2018 and to be complete mid-2019.

"I think 2018 is clearly a huge year for Launceston, and the City of Launceston is incredibly excited to be delivering such a wide variety of fantastic projects for the Northern Tasmanian community."