The City of Sydney has announced plans to recommence the development of the Glebe promenade after four years of stalled works.
A City spokesperson said that financial considerations in 2007 led the council to assign its capital works budget to other projects, which postponed the development’s execution.
The Council said it is sought to restart the foreshore project’s final stages – five and six – which date back to 2003. Stage five of the project involves an easement across Sydney Secondary College’s Blackwattle Bay campus, while stage six will improve Bridge Road’s footpath leading to the Sydney Fish Market.
The Glebe harbour walk, estimated to cost a total of $15 million, will provide continuous public access along the Glebe foreshore, stretching from Chapman Ave to Bridge Rd and the Sydney Fish Market.
The Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP said the development would benefit walkers and cyclists. “[A] promenade will stretch more than two km and link more than 27 hectares of open space”.
The City is currently in negotiations with NSW Education about the Blackwattle Bay campus.
“Negotiations are needed because the City does not own the land over which the easement is sought,” a City of Sydney spokesperson said.
NSW Education described the negotiations as legal and technical in nature, but said it fully supported the harbour walk project.
“It will provide benefits to the school community as well as the broader community,” an Education Department spokesperson said.
Landscape architecture firm JMD Design won the initial tender in 2007 and has been granted an exemption from tender, enabling its involvement in the development’s final stages.
The City of Sydney’s Director of City Projects, Michael Leyland, said: “The consultant team has in-depth knowledge of the project, including technical issues relating to the site.”
President of the Glebe Society, Mairéad Browne, voiced her support. “We are in favour of anything that extends the existing walkway towards the fish market.”
She said the Society has advocated public access to the Glebe waterfront since the late 1960s and said they “were the champions of that whole walkway being developed in the first instance.” Construction is expected to begin next year.
