Grenfell Main Street Renewal

The look

Grenfell Main Street is home to some of the most historic commercial buildings in New South Wales and is currently undergoing a street beautification makeover including reconstruction of the road pavement and an upgrade of a range of underground services.

The tree planting scheme is the highlight of the project with some fifty plus trees along the centre of the street and in the road shoulder adjacent to the footpaths.

Varieties such as Ornamental Pear and Autumn Blaze maple will provide a cooling effect in the summer and vibrant colour in the autumn.

Council staff are in regular contact with the various Main Street businesses in an endeavour to cause as little disruption as possible during the works.

A number of construction techniques have been developed to keep the street open to traffic in both directions as much as possible.

The re-set

The street pavement reconstruction works commenced on 27 December 2022 with the construction of a concrete roundabout at the Forbes Street intersection, which was completed in ten working days.

The road pavement work commenced early in January 2023 and consists of a lean mix concrete base and asphaltic concrete surface course.

This innovative design has overcome the obstacles such as a very soft subgrade and a number of underground services at shallow depths below the road surface. The geotechnical issues and the wet weather had significant impacts on the project.

A conventional foundation of crushed road base would have required an excavation depth that would have interacted with these services and made it difficult to achieve the necessary compaction.

Council was also concerned about employing heavy vibrating compaction equipment, needed for a conventional pavement, in a street with a number of heritage buildings.

The innovative design and approach also allowed work to continue, while keeping the street open to traffic, which would have been very difficult with a conventional construction method.

The progress

The western half of the street from Forbes Street to the Mid Western Highway is completed with street lights installed, garden beds constructed and the asphalt surface applied in April.

Tree planting and ground cover planting will be carried out over the next couple of months when it warms up.

The remaining section of Main Street from Forbes Street to Short Street has 40% of the concrete base constructed and street light foundations installed.

Remedial works to the previously installed drainage system have also been carried out in this section and a pedestrian crossing revamped.

As with all infrastructure projects at the moment there are challenges with the weather and difficulties in obtaining materials in a timely manner.

Outstanding works include the remaining concrete pavement, street light installation, garden bed construction, irrigation connections, tree and ground cover planting and the asphalt surface application, which is programmed for August to September 2023.

The project costs

The project costs are currently within the estimate budget due in large part to the engagement of skilled local contractors and the support of the business community, who continue to be understanding of the inevitable disruption and inconvenience to their customers caused by such works.

This project is proudly funded by the NSW Government and Australian Government through a number of funding programs.

The updates

The progress of works will be published here on Council’s website on a weekly basis. Council endeavours to provide this progress of works on Mondays to forecast the works ahead for the week to keep business owners and the community informed. Information can also be found in the Grenfell Record or Council’s Facebook Page.

A copy of the Grenfell Main Street Renewal Design Concept (Council Resolution 021/2019 for public exhibition at 20 July 2019 Council Meeting) can be found here(PDF, 11MB) .   

A copy of the Grenfell Main Street Preliminary Engineering Plans submitted to the Local Traffic Committee (Council Resolution 321/2022 at 21 May 2022 Council Meeting) can be found here(PDF, 7MB) .   

A copy of the Grenfell Main Street Renewal Plans (100% Civil Engineering Plans) can be found here(PDF, 22MB).

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