Bike-friendly green spine
New sculpture to celebrate cycling in Geelong as part of ...
AS car parks are being ripped out of Malop St, authorities are planning to install an $85,000 art piece to promote cycling in Geelong.
The “large-scale, highly interactive sculpture” will form part of the $8 million pedestrian and bicycle-friendly Green Spine project.
The council has said the piece, to be installed at the crossing that links the Market Square and Westfield shopping centres, will celebrate Geelong as a cycling city.
The Geelong Advertiser revealed last week that business was bleeding in the shopping strip, with people avoiding the street’s southern side as crews worked on the Green Spine project. The joint council and State Government initiative will remove parking and install new paths, planted gardens, bike lanes and outdoor seating and dining areas.
Cyclists will be given a higher priority, with one-way separated bike lanes on both sides of the street.
Work began on the centrepiece — an 8m-wide botanic walk on the block between Moorabool and Yarra streets — at the end of June.
Artists have been asked to put forward their ideas for the sculpture, which will be the key public art feature in the Green Spine development.
The council expects to commission the successful artist in October, but has not revealed a timeline for construction and installation.
Work on Malop St’s southern side is expected to be finished in early November. Tools will be downed for the busy Christmas and New Year period, before works begin on the northern edge in mid-January and run through to May.
MEANWHILE, the council has confirmed that the popular Christmas projections will return this festive season.
The artistic projections will be aired onto the Gheringhap St facade of City Hall nightly from November 17.