City of Ballarat councillors are set to vote on the awarding of $7.6 million worth of tenders as the city looks to spur its economic recovery from the pandemic.
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Councillors will decide on three tender projects at Wednesday night's council meeting, including the Sturt Street bike path, a new pavilion at Victoria Park and the reconstruction of Cuthberts Road.
Council officers have recommended the contract for the almost $3.7 million Sturt Street bike path project be awarded to Ballarat-based builder Fulton Hogan.
The project will see a shared bike path built on the Sturt Street median between Dawson Street and Grenville Street along with intersection upgrades, line marking and landscaping and is a continuation of the works already completed by Regional Roads Victoria.
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Regional Roads Victoria will be contributing $1.1 million to the project with the remaining funding to come from council's capital works budget and other reallocated funding.
The tender for the new $2.6 million pavilion at Victoria Park is being recommended to be awarded to Ballarat builder Nicholson Construction.
The new facility will include change rooms and amenities, social rooms, kitchen and kiosk, internal and public toilets as well as car parking and landscaping works.
The pavilion upgrade forms part of council's $5.2 million Victoria Park redevelopment project, with the state government contributing $500,000 towards its construction.
After consultation with the Victoria Park Soccer Club, Lucas Cricket Club and other user groups, the proposed pavilion has been designed to accommodate the tenant sporting clubs while still being flexible for use by other groups and community organisations.
Finally, council officers have recommended the contract for the Cuthberts Road reconstruction also be awarded to Fulton Hogan for just more than $950,000.
About 1.8 kilometres of existing road at Cuthberts Road between Burrumbeet-Hillcrest Road to Smarts Hill Road will be stabilised and reconstructed with a sealed surface and new open drains through the project.
City of Ballarat chief executive Evan King said the projects would put significant money back into the city's economy and construction industry, which is crucial in a COVID recovery environment.
"You put $7.3 million worth of capital works projects into the economy, most of the employment for these projects will come from Ballarat people, most of the supplies that they purchase to deliver these projects will come out of Ballarat, so the multiplier effect of it is significant," he said.
"If you use Ballarat employees, they then spend their money so the economic multiplier of it, the salaries and wages they earn get spent in the city, the businesses that provide the materials employ people, the economic benefit of it, is really significant and couldn't come at a more important time."
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