Cambridge’s historic Hall St is booked in for a facelift.
The beautiful tree-lined street in Cambridge east is one of the oldest in Cambridge, known for its large heritage trees and wide grass berms.
But those stunning features can also cause issues, with tree roots breaking the pavement and the lack of a pipe drainage system causing water to pond.
Today’s Service Delivery Committee signed off on a series of improvements to the street including:
- New stormwater soak holes and catch pits to collect stormwater and reduce flooding.
- Replacing sections of broken footpaths and kerb and channel
- A new central pedestrian island on the Hall Street/Taylor Street intersection
- Extension of the Ngaio Crescent path to the Hall Street road edge
- A suite of safety improvements to slow traffic and keep pedestrians safe
- New road surface on the shoulders to replace exposed metal
Transportation manager Bryan Hudson acknowledged the works had been a long time coming and was grateful for the input of Hall Street residents.
“Hall Street is a really lovely street and it’s also important in terms of connections to local schools and the Hamilton Road cycleway. If we’re going to encourage people to walk and cycle, we need to make it safer for them by providing a good quality pavement that works well with the trees that are such an important part of the landscape.”
Hall Street residents had provided plenty of feedback on the design and that had been taken into account wherever possible, he said.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into considering the trees and will continue to seek specialist arborist advice as the work gets underway. The new pavement surface will be hand-laid in some areas to minimise damage to tree roots and the surface itself is a porous asphalt which will allow rainwater through.”
Work is likely to begin in October 2023 and is likely to take around two months. The total budget for the works is $350,000.
