Warrnambool council paves the way for safer footpaths in city's CBD

The project will be carried out in stages over the coming three to five years, with sections of Banyan Street, Raglan Parade, Fairy Street and Lava Street to be completed in February and March.

Plans to extend the bluestone pavers along Koroit Street between Liebig and Kepler streets that were originally flagged as part of the CBD renewal in 2018 will not form part of this project.

The council's acting CEO, and infrastructure director, David Leahy said the Koroit Street upgrade was outside the scope of the works for this project.

"That's something that will probably have to come back into the chamber for discussion," Mr Leahy said.

"This is all the asphalt footpaths that are going to remain asphalt, so it's a renewal exercise as opposed to an upgrade."

Mayor Debbie Arnott said upgrading the Koroit Street footpaths was "not yet" on the councillors' agenda.

Mr Leahy said the council had budgeted about $600,000 a year to carry out the footpath renewal over the next three to five years, but the project may be extended if it was unable to get all the works done within that time-frame and budget.

He said the project was specifically for the renewal of CBD footpaths, but said there were other renewal works that were happening across the city. "What we are doing here is addressing risk - so there's fall, there's risk of failure, there's crushed stormwater pipes exiting out onto the road. All these things are getting repaired as we speak," Mr Leahy said.

He said the council was ensuring the footpath environment was "as safe as it could possibly be".

Cr Arnott said asset renewal projects such as this were important for the liveability of the city.

"While this is essentially a like-for-like replacement, pedestrians will notice a big improvement," she said.

"There are about 10km of asphalt footpaths scheduled to be replaced, and their condition varies fairly significantly, especially where utility services have accessed their underground infrastructure and sections have been patched up.

"An important part of the project is working with these utility companies so that they can try to coordinate any underground works to coincide with the footpath works.

"By the end of the project, we will have footpaths that are smooth, consistent, and easier for everyone to use.

"I'd like to thank everyone for their understanding while the work is under way.

The council's economic development and projects teams got in touch with impacted property owners and residents late last year to provide an overview of the project, and have been following up with specific dates once they were confirmed for each footpath section.

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