[COM] Victoria Square Upgrade - $24m

[Patrick_27]

Can someone get some pictures of what's been opened. Living in Melbourne, can't make it down.

[Phantom]

We should look into getting one of those "Renovation Rescue" or "Ground Force" style television shows from a few years back to come into Victoria Square and do it on a budget of just $50k. Maybe we could have some nice 44 gallon drums spray painted silver in there, too? Place some compost and native shrubs inside of it and BAM. Job done, $23,950,000 saved. Hahaha!

Sometimes, I swear I should be a politician.

[Patrick_27]

We should look into getting one of those "Renovation Rescue" or "Ground Force" style television shows from a few years back to come into Victoria Square and do it on a budget of just $50k. Maybe we could have some nice 44 gallon drums spray painted silver in there, too? Place some compost and native shrubs inside of it and BAM. Job done, $23,950,000 saved. Hahaha!

Sometimes, I swear I should be a politician.

Craig from Room For Improvement can do have a crack at his interpretation of art!

[MessiahAndrw]

Can someone get some pictures of what's been opened. Living in Melbourne, can't make it down.

Same here, but living overseas. Picture posts are the only thing keeping me in touch with home.

[Phantom]

My phone camera sucks ass, otherwise I would. I can attempt to describe it, however? I'm sure my detail quality is poor.

I went past it on a bus last weekend, and this is what I noticed.

The square honestly looks pretty similar to the picture Shahkar posted a few months back, above. The major differences being that the road through the square has been closed off and is being replaced with small footpath style pavers from memory. (Think John St in Salisbury). In the Southern section, a large hole has been dug up, I can only assume to house the assembly for the pumps and things required to run the fountain. It still does look like a bomb sight, to be honest, but you can tell it's starting to come together. Also, a mound of soil (I assume this is just temporary soil from the fountain) has been placed in the center of the southern half of the square (where the original tram terminus was).

Finally, the only other major differences I've noticed is that a wall has been built on the... Now bear with my horrid sounding directions here... The wall is on the northern half of the square's south-eastern side, very close to the statue. This, again I assume is part of the structure on the bottom of the picture Nathan posted a while back.

As I said, sorry for the shithouse description, but I figured having a rough idea how it looks is better than nothing. Hopefully an eye in the sky can post some new pictures soon. The whole square is covered up with a 2 high metal fence with advertisements for Adelaide all over it, so getting a good ground view perspective is pretty difficult.

[MessiahAndrw]

Much appreciated, Phantom.

[Matt]

Pilfered from Instagram

[Ben]

Starting to take shape but strauggle to see it being completed before the TDU.

[monotonehell]

I went past at about 8:15 this morning and there were about 50 workers beavering away.

[cruel_world00]

I'm kind of hoping that Adelaide will get used to the idea of the middle lanes being shut and then council will surprise everyone by saying it's closed for good.

[monotonehell]

I'm kind of hoping that Adelaide will get used to the idea of the middle lanes being shut and then council will surprise everyone by saying it's closed for good.

+1

[zippySA]

+2 - time to stop the car driving all our decisions, and focus on people, after a short adjustment, people will ultimately change their behaviour and experience the benefits of placing the car down our priority list. I work on the edge of the Square, and would certainly use it much more if it was easier to enter without long walks to pedestrian crossings. After closing the middle section, we should then push to blur the lines of King William Street, giving priority to trams and pedestrians and make the cars divert to other routes or accept they have to give priority to others if they travers the Square. I am dreaming about European type Squares (Grenoble in France is one that springs to mind) - where the town centre is effectively a multi-user thoroughfare, with no real distinctions between sidewalks, roadway and tram lines - but everyone gets along and it works really well, creating a vibrant, enjoyable space.

[spiller]

^^ I agree, pave the entire section of KWS that surrounds the square, narrow the road using nice bollards and decrease the speed limit to 25 km/h with multiple pedestrian crossings giving pedestrians right of way (i.e no traffic lights) - basically make the whole area a giant shared zone. that would be fantastic but there would need to be some siginficant upgrades to Morphett, Pultney, Franklin and Grenfell streets to handle the increased traffic flow.

the right way to do it is to tunnel KWS but we all know that's many years away.

[Patrick_27]

^^ I agree, pave the entire section of KWS that surrounds the square, narrow the road using nice bollards and decrease the speed limit to 25 km/h with multiple pedestrian crossings giving pedestrians right of way (i.e no traffic lights) - basically make the whole area a giant shared zone. that would be fantastic but there would need to be some siginficant upgrades to Morphett, Pultney, Franklin and Grenfell streets to handle the increased traffic flow.

the right way to do it is to tunnel KWS but we all know that's many years away.

What a moronic comment. I get that Adelaide should become more pedestrian friendly; and taking heavy peak traffic out of the city. But you, along with other people above seemingly forget that Vic Square is part of major bus routes. I'm sure one of the main reasons behind keeping the central roadway (aside from the endless complaints that would be received if it were removed) is because the buses use it to cross over the square. I too, would love to see it closed off eventually; and I'm sure in good time it will be. But your idea of narrowing the roads and slowing the speed-limit down to 25 km/h is stupid, the already ridiculous wait times for buses going through that part of the city would further become a problem.

[zippySA]

Don't get too excited - the comment did include the need to alter alternative roadways to accommodate such a change.

Hardly moronic - that sort of attitude is why councils and Gov play it safe - would life really end if busses were re-routed either side of the square, or as a trade off they ended up with priority (albeit slow) lanes through pedestrian zones (don't really see the difference between a bus or a tram when sharing areas with predestrians - both will kill you if you get in the way).

We can spend as many millions as we want on the Square - but until we address the roadway around and through it, it remains a dressed up round-about - and the amenity and opportunity is diluted.