Hill’s focus on walkways

MAYOR Jenny Hill has downplayed concern improvements to the city’s Central Park might not be completed in time for the opening of the new North Queensland Stadium.

Cr Hill said new walkways to Central Village and

Park should be the focus.

She also said the stadium could do “a hell of a lot” to activate the underused CBD but that the stadium operator, Stadiums Queensland, needed to ensure its use for special events and concerts and not just NRL games.

Meanwhile, Minister for Housing and Public Works Mick de Brenni said the February 29 completion of stadium connections to the CBD would Reid “come down to the wire” but that he was checking regularly to ensure they were completed on time.

The Bulletin revealed last week that a planned new boardwalk linking Central Park to Victoria Bridge would not be ready for the stadium opening.

The State Government is confident a pedestrian bridge linking the stadium to Reid Park will be ready, while Cr Hill said both the Reid Park link and an upgrade of a Ross Creek pedestrian bridge to the Central Village cinema precinct would be finished on time.

She said there was little to do on Central Park.

“It’s quite usable. What we really want to fix is the new walkways,” Cr Hill said.

She said the stadium needed to be used for concerts and she understood operator Stadiums Queensland would be the key driver.

“It would be great if we could see the initial plan of Stadiums Queensland and work with them,” Cr Hill said.

The council previously has said improvements to Central Park would be ready for the opening of the stadium.

Mr de Brenni said the stadium was a “game changer” and could do for Townsville what Southbank did for Brisbane.

“There’s two main outcomes from this project and they have been much-needed job creation and Townsville CBD activation, and neither of those is an accident, they were the purpose,” Mr de Brenni said.

“Projects of this scale and importance will always have tension around whether they are done on time and while the connections to the CBD will come down to the wire, I’m checking regularly that everyone involved, from the local tradies, the council, the state … is doing everything possible to get it there.”