Page 2216 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008

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245 hectares of lakes; 2,411 hectares of road verges, medians and shopping centres; 4,157 hectares of parkland and urban open space; 625,000 street and park trees; playgrounds, public toilets, barbecues, and numerous other assets distributed across the ACT; and 5,900 lane kilometres, or 20 million square metres, of road network. These assets are long-lived, typically 50 to 100 years, and consist of a group of network-related assets—that is, kerbs, pavements and road services, car parks, stormwater, bridges, retaining walls, urban trees, parks and urban open spaces with associated infrastructure.

Each year TAMS receives developed infrastructure assets following greenfields or suburban redevelopment from the Land Development Agency and new assets created by the department through the capital works program. Continuing developments with significant but as yet unquantified growth impacts include Forde, Harrison, The Meadows in Dunlop, Flemington Road estates, Yerrabi Estate, Wells Station in Gungahlin and Horse Park Estate. Infrastructure assets are highly visible and intensively used, and, while new assets require low maintenance in the formative years, a cyclical maintenance program extends asset lives and prevents their decline.

Within the heart of the city, we are upgrading the older section of Bunda Street with $3.65 million to be spent on lighting, street furniture and paving from Northbourne Avenue to Akuna Street, improving public safety and providing continuity of design along the street. The budget also includes funding of $3 million to provide new infrastructure in the City West precinct to deliver improved safety, presentation and functionality of the area. There is more.

Mrs Dunne: Can you make it more interesting, Johnno?

MR HARGREAVES: I am going to try to.

Mrs Dunne: Can you sing it?

MR HARGREAVES: Well, there is more. The final stage of the Belconnen lakeshore refurbishment at the Eastern Valley Way Inlet will also be completed with $2.8 million of kerbage in this project, integrating the recently completed promenade with a lake edge with boardwalks and piers over Lake Ginninderra.

The government is also planning for the future and the growth of our city with a feasibility study funded in the 2008-09 budget to access areas of need and suitable locations for additional recycling and drop-off facilities. The study will also investigate opportunities for designing and constructing additional facilities in key business areas to augment the free recycling services available to the ACT community.

A feasibility study has also been funded to assist options for a new landfill site in the ACT, aiming to be ready by 2013, by which time current waste management facilities will be nearing capacity. An additional $2.8 million will fund a project to establish a dedicated clean-fill disposal site at the west Belconnen landfill facility and to facilitate rehabilitation of the old borrow pit area, as required by the Environment Protection Authority. Mrs Dunne knows what a borrow pit area is, because we explained it in the estimates committee.


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