Civic precinct project is on schedule

Published on 12 April 2019

Forster’s civic precinct project is progressing on schedule with works this month laying the foundations for the stage one public facilities.

“Project managers have told us that last week marked a milestone with concrete pours commencing on the foundations of the building that will house the library, visitor information centre and a flexible community space,” said Council’s Director of Corporate and Business Systems, Mr Steve Embry.

The initial pours were to establish the four ‘lift pits’ that will service the stage one building, but bigger and better is yet to come, with two very large concrete foundation pours being planned.

“Weather permitting, project managers are planning to undertake structural concrete pours on Thursday 18 April and Friday 26 April that each will involve 300 cubic metres of concrete,” said Mr Embry.

That’s going to require around 60 concrete trucks to access the site on each day – or about one truck every five minutes for each five hour pour!

There will be some traffic control measures in place on adjacent streets (Lake, Middle and West), so motorists are advised to avoid the area if possible on those days.

During the excavation stage of the build, between 120 and 170 truck movements took place each day, considerably more than either of the upcoming concrete pours.

Stage one of the civic precinct project will deliver public facilities, including a new library, visitor information centre and flexible community space, and is expected to be completed by September 2020.

A development agreement has been entered into between Enyoc Pty Ltd and Council for the design and construction of these community facilities. A development approval for the project was issued in September 2017 and that approval also allows for the residual of the site to be developed in subsequent stages by Enyoc for mixed use commercial purposes, which include facilities such as seniors living apartments, retail shops, supermarket, hotel and a gymnasium.

The $18 million community facilities project is being delivered thanks to a Federal Government National Stronger Regions Fund grant of $6 million, an investment of $6 million from Council and a contribution of $6 million from Enyoc Pty Ltd, (as consideration for the sale of the residual land at the site). 

For more information on the development of civic precinct project, visit the project page.