The first of the state government's promised 1000 new free car parks will soon arrive in Ballarat, with tenders out for an upgrade to the White Flat Oval's car park.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
An election promise from 2018, it's taken until earlier this year for the new car park locations to be revealed - as well as the hospital and Federation University's SMB campus, and potential new multi-level car parks at the Eastwood Street car park, the rest of the 1000 spaces will be scattered throughout the city.
The White Flat Oval upgrade will reconstruct and formalise existing car parks behind Federation TAFE, and according to council documents, it will include a "minimum" 62 spaces and 65 new spaces, to make a total of 127 spaces.
SEE ALL THE LOCATIONS HERE:
That means another 935 spaces will need to be built.
The works will also include new kerbing, drainage, and landscaping, all funded by the state government.
Works on the first stage of the Ballarat Sewer Build, currently at Anderson Street West, will eventually terminate at White Flat Oval.
The tender announcement comes as Regional Development Victoria, the government agency in charge of the project, releases statistics from its community engagement survey.
About 84 per cent of respondents approve of more parking at the Ballarat Base Hospital, where an 200 to 400 space extension to the existing multi-level car park is planned as part of the massive hospital upgrade.
Additional parking at Market Street, behind the Ballarat Library and the new GovHub building, was also popular, however only 30 to 35 timed spaces will be provided, and another 50 all day parks will be built at the "Eastern Oval Precinct".
Both are expected in 2022.
A new multi-level car park was approved by 72.8 per cent of respondents, 67.9 per cent of respondents approved of a new multi-level car park at Eastwood Street, and 61.4 per cent of respondents approved of a new multi-level car park at Anderson Street West, where there is already a paid off-street park - 22 per cent of respondents had "no opinion" on this location.
Each of these locations would have about 300 new parks.
According to RDV, the locations were chosen "within and outside the CBD" in partnership with council and Ballarat Health Services, and are "experiencing the most parking pressure".
A free unmarked and unsealed car park at Eastern Oval opened in 2019.
"Ballarat locals and businesses have had an opportunity to have their say during the feasibility process on five shortlisted locations," a government spokesperson said in a statement in response to questions from The Courier.
"Community engagement on preferred car park sites has found all five shortlisted locations received a majority support from respondents - with 84 per cent approving the proposal for more parking at the Ballarat Base Hospital multi-level extension. This feedback will help to decide site inclusion, scale of works and priority of delivery for these sites across Ballarat."
- Note: "The original version of this article said there were 20 new carparks as the tender document had not been properly updated at the time of writing the story."
Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.
