Alfred Street: road and streetscape upgrade
The plan to transform Alfred Street into a green “avenue” connecting Walkerville Terrace to the oval precinct is underway.
The upgrade will provide a significant facelift to a key activity zone of Walkerville. The project aims to create a more inviting streetscape with roadside trees and plantings, improved stormwater management and a safer environment for pedestrians.
The plans include:
- Transforming Alfred Street into a one-way avenue (entrance from Walkerville Terrace and exit via Warwick Street) to assist with parking and vehicle access;
- Creating a promenade link between Walkerville Terrace and Walkerville Oval to provide safer pedestrian linkages;
- Lowering the speed limit from 50km/h to 20km/h (subject to Department of Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) approval);
- Adding more car parking spaces (current total is eight and there will be 11 once the upgrade is completed - seven on the Warwick Street side and four on the Walkerville Terrace end);
- Removing the existing garden bed adjacent to the tennis courts to make way for additional car parking, new garden beds and street trees;
- Increasing landscaping and tree planting to provide a corridor with surrounding streets;
- Upgrading surfaces to permeable pavement for stormwater management.
The purpose of the changes to Alfred Street is to address community feedback, which identified key concerns with pedestrian and access issues, lack of proper footpaths, stormwater problems and the poor condition of the road. During consultation in 2021, 100% of respondents supported the upgrade of Alfred Street, 92% wanted it to become a one-way street and 85% wanted a 20km/h traffic speed. Based on community feedback, the design was revised and the layout can be viewed below.
Click here to view the traffic control layout plan
Council acknowledges the State Government for its contribution of $131,087.50 towards the project as part of the 2021/22 Greener Neighbourhoods Grants Program.
The installation of permeable pavement at the Walkerville Terrace section of Alfred Street is nearing completion, with a target date of Friday 20 January 2023.
Road closures will remain in place – including sporadic restriction to driveways – until 31 January 2023, when major project works will be completed.
The final stage of the project will be the street tree and garden bed plantings, which will most likely occur in March 2023 when the weather is cooler, to ensure the survival of the new trees and plants.
For any questions, please contact the Assets & Infrastructure Team on 8342 7100 during business hours.
Key points moving into the Christmas from 23 December 2022 break:
Crews will be working until Friday 23 December 2022 and recommencing work on Tuesday 3 January 2023 to make up for lost time earlier in the project.
Temporary parking bollards will be placed at the Walkerville Oval carpark on Wednesday this week (21 December 2022), which will be designated spaces for Alfred Street residents and guests over the break.
Half of the Warwick Street end of the project will be opened over the break, which will provide five additional parking spaces closer to the work site (highlighted below).
The aim is to fully reopen the playground for the Christmas break, as well as the walkway between the kindy and the playground, to the public with new fencing and paving installed.
The currently exposed gravel/permeable section is due to be paved early in January and has taken longer than expected due to the underground drainage being installed, which is now connected to Walkerville Oval.
New irrigation for the Alfred Street playground has been installed.
A general clean-up of the site and materials will occur at the end of this week (23 December 2022) for to prepare for the break.
Bin collection locations over the break will remain the same as current arrangements (out on Walkerville Terrace or Warwick Street).
Council is working in collaboration with construction company Plot Works to deliver the project.
Impacted residents and businesses will be contacted directly with expected access requirements and parking arrangements during the upgrade period.
The Alfred Street playground will be closed at times throughout the project construction period to ensure the safety of all users.
The upgrade is expected to be completed in January 2023.
For further information, please contact the Assets and Infrastructure team at walkerville@walkerville.sa.gov.au or 8342 7100.
Alfred Street
Alfred Street is a low volume, low speed, local street between Walkerville Terrace and Warwick Street.
A recent traffic survey showed average speeds over a seven-day period were approximately 25km/h on the currently 50km/h road and approximately 100 vehicles per day accessed the street.
The existing road design is not conducive to high speeds or volumes given its narrow width and mid-block 90 degree bend, which makes two-way traffic movement difficult.
It is also common for pedestrians to use Alfred Street as a linkage from Walkerville Terrace to access the local playground.
Power lines
The undergrounding of SA Power Network’s overhead services has not been considered as part of the upgrade due to the high capital cost involved with undergrounding power lines.
Pedestrian accessibility
An analysis of the traffic data collected as part of the design process showed that Alfred Street is already acting as a pseudo shared zone, with more pedestrians accessing the area than vehicles on average per day. The upgrade aims to improve the pre-existing pedestrian functionality by slowing down traffic via a reduced speed limit, as well as landscaped garden beds for visual appearance and greening.
2020 consultation
The recommended changes come in response to community feedback from late 2020 when Administration consulted with the residents of Alfred Street about the issues they were experiencing along the road. Key concerns raised from this survey included:
- Lack of a footpath/safe access for pedestrians.
- The condition of the road.
- Issues with stormwater given the lack of underground drainage.
2021 consultation
In order to address the above concerns, Council considered a road and streetscape upgrade as part of the 2021/22 Draft Annual Business Plan & Budget process. As part of this, the local community was invited to provide further feedback in April 2021. The survey revealed that 100% of respondents supported the upgrade of Alfred Street and 12 of the 13 submissions wanted to see a one-way road implemented.
2022 consultation
Following the 2021 survey, Council was notified in January 2022 that it had been successful in receiving $131,087.50 as part of the Greener Neighbourhoods Grants Program.
Revisions were then made based on funding and survey results. The community was presented with the updated designs and had further opportunity to comment in February 2022.
A number of concerns were raised during the consultation period, including:
- Moving parking on the Walkerville Terrace end of Alfred Street to the Warwick Street end.
- The lack of disability parking in the area.
- Difficulties with property access and bin collection, particularly with trees on both sides.
- The proposed parking bays on Alfred Street taking up too much open space near the playground.
- Consideration to underground existing power lines.
- Pedestrian safety and lack of footpaths.
- Additional parking bays along the playground may encourage more vehicles to use Alfred Street and deter pedestrian activity.
In response, Council made the following changes:
- Introduced additional parking spaces at the Walkerville Terrace entrance, bringing the total number of car parks to 11.
- Made four of the eight parking bays at the Alfred Street playground “Resident Permit Only”.
- Investigate the potential of adding a disability parking space at the Alfred Street playground or on Walkerville Terrace.
- Made minor adjustments to the garden bed and tree layouts to ensure property access was not compromised.
- Engaged a Traffic Engineering Consultant to assess parking arrangements for Walkerville Terrace between Alfred Street and Smith Street.
- Reduced the encroachment of parking bays into the playground space, where possible.
Local residents and businesses were notified of the above plans on 24 February 2022.
On 29 August 2022, local residents and businesses were again notified of the construction process.