Improving road and pedestrian safety and renewing aged infrastructure across the City of Greater Geraldton, Western Australia, are top priorities in the 2020/21 Budget.
Mayor, Shane Van Styn said undertaking these projects would assist with the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Despite a decline in revenue streams, the City is delivering a significant capital spend, which isn’t much less than pre COVID-19, and will inject a significant amount of money into our local economy.
“Maintaining the 250kms of footpaths, 830kms of sealed roads and 1280kms of unsealed roads, which are the City’s largest assets, is vital to our financial sustainability.”
In the coming 12 months, nearly $8 million will be spent to maintain more than 18km of sealed roads and to re-sheet more than 47km of unsealed roads. More than $1.5 million will be also be spent to renew more than 1760m of footpaths and to construct 2040m of new footpaths.
“Investing in the outer suburbs is ranked number three in the list of future priorities in our Community Voice Survey, which is why our ongoing program of accessibility and liveability improvements in these areas remains unchanged.”
Grant funding has also made an important contribution to the 2020/21
renewals Budget.
“This year, we have to ensure every dollar goes even further which is why we’ve gone that extra mile to leverage our investments with grant funding.”
External funding secured from Main Roads Western Australia Regional Road Group Funding Scheme will cover more than 66 percent of the $1.6 million allocated towards four key road renewal projects in the City region.
More than $2 million in federal and state government Black Spot funding has also been secured for the construction of two roundabouts in the most traffic congested area of the City.
