A crane on Bendigo’s skyline at the site of the new Bendigo Law Courts has signalled the next chapter in development of the city centre.
With work also set to start soon on the Bendigo GovHub, the City of Greater Bendigo is reminding the community to be patient as progress is made.
Chief Executive Officer Craig Niemann said short-term change was inevitable but overall it was an exciting time for the city.
“The Law Courts and GovHub, together with the nearly complete Bendigo TAFE expansion, represent an investment of more than $300M by the Victorian Government in the future of our city,” Mr Niemann said.
“As we live with the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, work continuing on these sites provides a shot of optimism for our community, creating hundreds of jobs during construction then ongoing jobs in the new buildings as well as more jobs in our local economy to service the additional activity.
“We’ve also seen media reports of booming house prices locally, which highlights Greater Bendigo is the place to be and people can see a future for themselves in our city and region.
“To accommodate these projects, motorists and pedestrians will notice a change in traffic conditions in the northern-end of the city centre. Wherever possible, project managers will share information ahead of time but where there are road closures or changes to parking it is in the best interests of people’s safety and to limit impacting on construction timelines.”
To support the delivery of the Law Courts and GovHub, there will be losses and gains of carparks with an overall gain of 20 additional all-day bays created in the area.
The new all-day bays have been converted from time-restricted bays that were previously underutilised. They are located in Myers, Mundy, Chapel, Bramble, Larritt, McCrae, Joseph and McLaren Streets. Work to identify further opportunities to convert underused car parks is ongoing.
The City has temporarily allocated bays to contractors over the life of the projects, so as there are less trucks parked on our roads, less disruption to traffic and to support the COVID-safe requirements for construction staff on site.
The City is receiving compensation for the use of these bays and the majority, except for about two bays, will be returned for community use when the projects are completed.
“It will be a matter of temporary growing pains while this new wave of development takes place and delivers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revitalise our city centre,” Mr Niemann said.
