Ballarat's newest all-day car park finally has an opening date, more than a year after it was originally expected to be completed.
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City of Ballarat revealed on Thursday that the Creswick Road car park will open in the week commencing September 23.
A council spokeperson said in a statement posted online the final surface and line-marking need to be completed before the car park is operational.
"Weather and other conditions have impacted on the opening date," the spokesperson said.
When the car park was announced in June 2018, City of Ballarat were set to spend $600,000 on 122 Creswick Road, the former Shell service station next to Officeworks.
As the council only has a three-year lease on the site, it is possible that Ballarat will lose the 300 parks in 2021. Construction of GovHub is expected to be complete in 2020, leaving only one year currently where public servants at the building can park there.
A council spokesperson said that "discussions have been held regarding an extension" to the site lease.
City of Ballarat declined to reveal the full cost of the project to September 2019, saying the "lease costs are commercial in confidence" .
In July, City of Ballarat's director of infrastructure and environment Terry Demeo said the continual delays to the project did have an additional financial burden but were "not impacting significantly on the City of Ballarat's costs".
"However given the delay in the operational dates for the car park it has impacted on the City of Ballarat's income stream with respect to fees paid by those using the facility," he said in July.
When construction first began mid-last year, the car park was expected to be completed September 2018. The opening date has since been pushed back multiple times, with 'soil problems' motivating a delay in March this year.
In July this year, council said the project would be completed before the end of the same month, citing "prolonged weather delay and other commitments" of the contractors.
The City of Ballarat statement on Thursday said there had been no "significant concerns raised by residents or car park users due to the delay in the opening". It also argued the greatest need for parking in the area will only be realised this month, when the GovHub project transfers from excavation to construction and there's more demand on nearby car parking.
The money came from a $2 million state government cash-splash, to provide 1000 car parks in the Ballarat CBD, in order to offset the lost spaces from workers entering GovHub, and the removal of the multi-story car park next to Civic Hall.
When completed, the car park will have 300 paid parking spots, for a fee of $6.50 per day.