Page 2884 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2018
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signs, community paths, road verges and medians, shopping precincts, parklands and open space, playgrounds, public toilets and barbecues.
Through this budget the government will also deliver on our election commitment to plant an additional 1,330 trees across residential areas. Planting more trees is an efficient way to reduce the urban heat island effect, making us more resilient to climate change as well as ensuring Canberra remains one of the most livable cities.
The budget continues to provide funding to maintain around 7,000 kilometres of road. We will invest in the upgrade of the intersections between Ginninderra Drive and Tillyard Drive, Tillyard Drive and Lhotsky Street, and Kuringa Drive and Owen Dixon Drive, with traffic lights and other safety improvements to improve traffic flow and road safety. We will also construct a shared path along Kuringa Drive to connect to the Barton Highway, significantly improving safety for pedestrians and particularly cyclists.
Design and construction planning for the duplication of William Slim Drive from the Barton Highway to Ginninderra Drive will be undertaken in this financial year. The design of the upgrade will include the duplication of approximately 3.2 kilometres of road. The project will also include new on-road cycle lanes, new off-road shared paths, new traffic lights at the Dumas Street intersection and a new bridge over Ginninderra Creek, as well as new bus bays. The project will improve safety and public transport travel, ease congestion and improve the arterial road links, particularly between Gungahlin and Belconnen.
These are some of the great initiatives the 2018-19 budget provides to build a better city and provide better community-focused services.
We are also delighted to be nearing the end of the better suburbs initiative. I thank very much those citizens who have participated in this very in-depth process. I look forward to joining them this weekend as they finalise their deliberations and provide to me a statement on how we can continue to provide better city services for our growing city.
Once again, I welcome the opportunity to speak about the important work the ACTÂ government is doing through Transport Canberra and City Services, a directorate whose staff touch the lives of Canberrans every day. No matter where they live, no matter what they do in our great city, TCCS staff are there to help them. They interact and are on the front line of the ACT government in many instances. They do a very diverse and a very good job. I would like to thank them, as always, for their tremendous commitment to the work that they do and their dedication to the ACTÂ community. Through this budget we look to support them and the work that they do. I am pleased to highlight the benefits these investments will provide to Canberrans as they live in and move about our great city.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.45): The Greens welcome a number of wins for our policy agenda in this part of the budget. The Greens obviously have a strong commitment to a more sustainable city, and we are very pleased with some of the clear green wins in transport. We are very pleased that there is funding towards the
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