Lighting boosts

By Nathan Johnston
IMPROVEMENTS to street lighting will help Dandenong become a 24hour city, according to the City of Greater Dandenong.
The next project in the redevelopment of the CBD will be the lighting upgrades to Walker Street.
The council signed off on a deal on Monday night to award a $435,000 contract to National Power Services to remove all above ground power lines in Walker Street and put them underground.
In their place will be new street lighting that the council said will give more light to provide a safer environment at night.
A separate contract worth $282,000 was awarded to Karac Electrics for the lighting project.
Cr Paul Donovan said it was a major project in the redevelopment of the city.
“It will improve street lighting, improve safety and the visual appearance of central Dandenong.
“The relocation of the powerlines will remove visual clutter and enhance the appeal of the landscape,” he said.
As part of the street lighting project, wooden light poles will be replaced with metal poles that are designed to collapse should they be hit by a car.
Robert Anselmi from the council’s contracts unit said the poles greatly reduced the degree of injury to occupants of any vehicle that hit them.
In his report to the council, Mr Anselmi said the Walker Street improvements would “contribute to the ideal of Dandenong being a 24hour city”. “The ‘spine of consolidation’ is a term that has been given to the streets and buildings that connect the Dandenong Market to the Dandenong Station, following the Walker Street alignment and taking in the new Drum Theatre at the Dandenong Town Hall,” he said in his report.
“The spine is the focus for more intensive commercial and residential redevelopment, creating a new urban fabric for Dandenong,” the report said.