Holdfast Bay Council starts Jetty Rd Glenelg masterplan work to bring more people to the seaside strip
TRADERS want safer pedestrian crossings and more parking at this major beachside shopping strip — and $150,000 is being spent to come up with a revamp plan. What’d you like to see considered?
- New tram tracks set to be laid on Glenelg’s Jetty Rd with rubber inlays to improve cyclist safety
- Promotional video showing how $110m would change Glenelg Jetty is released
- Jetty Rd traders say parking and up-market shops and restaurants will help Glenelg continue to thrive
TRADERS say they want safer pedestrian crossings and more parking along Jetty Rd, Glenelg, as work begins on a plan to rejuvenate the strip.
The plan, which aims to help Jetty Rd compete with other Adelaide retail destinations, will cost $150,000 to produce.
It will be half funded by Holdfast Bay Council and the State Government will foot the rest of the bill.
Jetty Rd Mainstreet Committee chairman Mark Faulkner suggested the council should install temporary “parklets” of outdoor seating like those in the city and King William Rd, Hyde Park.
“If we had two or three built we could share it between the ends and the middle and even the side streets,” Mr Faulkner said.
“These parklets don’t have to stay in one spot.”
He said the group would also support more parking, safer pedestrian crossings and making holding events easier, such as by adding a crossover point for trams to turn around at stop 16.
Turning the council’s Elizabeth St carpark into a multistorey lot, could allow for more flexibility in taking out parks on Jetty Rd for outdoor seating and other uses, he said.
Holdfast Bay Council and the Transport Department have formed a “project group” to co-ordinate relaying the seaside shopping strip’s tram tracks with other improvements in the masterplan.
It is expected to be completed by May next year, when councillors would then need to vote on whether to allocate money towards its projects.
Helen Brinkworth, owner of handbag shop Touche de Paris, said more activities for children and safer pedestrian crossings should be included.
“It’s absolutely hideous trying to take on the traffic on Jetty Rd, and I’d like to see some more areas for people to sit,” Ms Brinkworth said.
The Teahouse owner Susan Sayegh said Jetty Rd was looking “very tired”.
“It just needs to be boosted in some way,” she said.
“Maybe different types of stores — more up-market.
“Something that will attract people instead of going to Marion.”
The vacancy rate on Jetty Rd dropped from a high of 12 per cent in 2014 to 4 per cent in April.
Mayor Stephen Patterson said improvements to the street’s aesthetics and infrastructure would ensure Glenelg would continue to be a top tourist destination.
“This will look at various ideas to improve on the precinct’s infrastructure, safety and aesthetics, and on how Jetty Rd relates to Moseley Square, the foreshore and the beach,” Mr Patterson said.
While other elements of the masterplan were still to be decided, Mr Patterson said work next year would include altering kerbing to allow better bus access and resurfacing Jetty Rd.
Tram track delay
PLANS to lay new tram tracks on Glenelg’s Jetty Rd and replace the Moseley Square turnaround will be delayed until at least May next year.
The section was the only one missed when new smoother tracks were laid in 2005 as part of the extension to Hindmarsh.
Work will be done at the same time as the council upgrades the shopping strip.
In a report to a council meeting earlier this month, acting city assets general manager Ken O’Neill said the government and the council were also “reluctant” to disrupt the busy summer season in Glenelg.
“Therefore, the project team is working towards developing a schedule to commence the project in May 2017 so that we could complete the work this financial year,” Mr O’Neill said.
It would take at least until December for the Transport Department to complete planning work required for the new tram tracks, Mr O’Neill said.
This is despite council chief executive Justin Lynch saying in May that the department had told him it would “re-lay the tram tracks with rubber inlays” to prevent bicycles getting their wheels stuck in the tram track groove.
The Guardian Messenger reported in April that cyclists regularly crashed near stop 16, after getting their wheels stuck in the tram-track gap.
Cyclists have to awkwardly negotiate around the platform for the stop, crossing from the left into the middle of the tracks.
Morphett MP Duncan McFetridge has called for the government to use rubber inlays since 2010, along with “insulated booted rail” that uses rubber on the bottom of the track to reduce noise and vibrations from trams.
What do you think should be done to boost Jetty Rd? Leave your comment below.