Plaza work to begin within weeks
The re-design of Adelaide’s Festival Plaza will commence as soon as the Crows’ local finals campaign ends, with work to begin on lowering Festival Drive to separate vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
A supplied image of the envisaged station entry point.
Construction company Lendlease has been announced as the winner of the $21 million contract to begin the work, which will set the stage for a broader and long-awaited revamp of Riverbank precinct, including the much-touted $300 million expansion of the casino and Walker Corporation’s planned office building, retail area and carpark upgrade.
Premier Jay Weatherill said the work was “a necessary part of the puzzle that brings together all these disparate elements” that would “kick-start the transformation of a long-neglected space”.
He said the existing plaza was “a space that’s pretty unattractive in summer because it’s so bakingly hot and in winter it’s pretty desolate”. But he argued the renewal of the Riverbank precinct – headlined by the Adelaide Oval overhaul – had “really captured the imagination of the SA community”.
“People are teeming into this area and we want to find a way of capturing them with activities and events,” he said.
However, it was clear the first stage of construction will not be without impost, with Lendlease’s SA general manager Chris Leopold saying the project was “a logistics challenge, there’s no doubt about it”.
The project will connect pedestrians between the Adelaide Railway Station and Riverbank Footbridge, while constructing new loading docks for the InterContinental Adelaide, SkyCity Casino and Festival Centre.
The year-long construction will involve the closure of the northern entrance to the Adelaide Railway Station, while public access to the footbridge and Adelaide Oval will be redirected to King William Road or a temporary pedestrian bridge near the InterContinental.
The Festival carpark will close early next year ahead of the major building works.
A supplied image of the new plaza.
Leopold said the “movement of people in and out of this area is a critical element”.
The Opposition expressed concern that the public had not been kept “fully informed” about what closures would occur during construction.
“It’s no good telling people a week before any closures are going to be put in place – we need to know now so that proper planning for the closures can occur,” spokeswoman Vickie Chapman said.
