New Lighting along Old King's Foreshore project

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Works now complete

Old King’s Foreshore lights up!

Following extensive community consultation, planning and design, Heritage NSW approvals, and a construction program delayed by unseasonal heavy rains, the Old King’s Foreshore lighting project is now complete.

The Old King's Foreshore holds cultural, historical and social significance at local, state and federal levels. The foreshore is also a popular recreation area and forms a part of a high-traffic pedestrian corridor linking key destinations, namely the Parramatta CBD and Commbank Stadium.

A risk assessment of the area undertaken by Council identified that the current lack of lighting and visibility poses a potential public safety risk. Twenty (20) LED light poles have now been installed along the shared pathway, adjacent to the Old King's Parade Ground between O’Connell Street and Marsden Street.

The new light poles provide consistent, high-quality lighting of the foreshore path and the connecting link to O’Connell Street, making the trip between the Parramatta CBD and CommBank Stadium brighter and safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

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Design

The new light poles provide consistent high quality lighting of the foreshore path and connecting link to O’Connell Street to a standard suitable for urban parklands and shared use by pedestrians and bike riders.

The light pole design has been selected for its suitability as a standard fixture for use throughout the city river corridor, in a range of settings and has the capacity to integrate other services, such as power, water and data, reducing the visual clutter of separate service cabinets these would otherwise require.

The new LED light poles match those installed adjacent to The Lennox development (opposite Riverside Theatres). The lights, and new landscaping, bring an understated contemporary style to the Parramatta River foreshore.

Lights in day

Lights at night

What did we hear?

In mid-2020, the City of Parramatta consulted the community on plans to install permanent pedestrian lighting along the shared path between Marsden Street and O’Connell Street. The community supported the proposal and minor amendments to the design have been informed by the community and stakeholder feedback.Thank you to everyone who participated in the consultation on the Old King's Foreshore Lighting Project proposed plans and the Review of Environmental Factors (REF) in late 2020.

How has community feedback been used?

The technical issues raised in submissions have been reviewed to confirm the design as exhibited provides high quality lighting to an appropriate standard whilst minimising light spill.

  • The switchboard has been relocated to a more discrete location away from O’Connell Street and closer to Marsden Street where it will no longer potentially impact pedestrian sight lines, as noted in one submission.
  • A number of suggestions about improvements for safety in the area are noted for consideration as part of future improvement works.

Further to this, it is noted the current lighting project anticipates two of these potential future improvements in its design.

  • The luminaires have been located and specified to ensure a future widened path will still meet the lighting standard.
  • The poles are cabled and configured to permit a future CCTV installation.

Check out what we heard below:

72 people provided feedback via the survey online

90% of respondents selected that they live within the City of Parramatta LGA

90% said ‘yes’ they do believe this project will increase visibility for pedestrians and cyclists

65% advised ‘yes’, the draft Review of Environmental Factors provide safeguard actions and mitigation measures to minimise these impacts

You suggested adding a path upgrade and mirrors for tight corners

You also suggested: signage, events, pop-up cafes, etc along the route and to update the under-bridge area