Installation has begun on The Levee project’s facade lighting that will highlight the precinct’s heritage features.
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They will light up the top half of the buildings, above the awnings, giving pedestrians plenty to talk about after dark.
“It will be a nice feature on these heritage buildings,” Maitland City Council civil engineering project manager Greg Blaze said.
“Some of them will have a broad beam and others [will be] narrow.”
The globes are energy-efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs) fitted in a steel case against the buildings just above the awnings and are obscured so the light source is barely visible.
The design and placement of the lights is the result of a carefully considered process.
A consultant determined the best spacing and beam width for each building.
There are more than 250 of lights that will operate in conjunction with the street lights, which are in the final workshop design phase.
“These [facade] lights will be installed over the next fortnight,” Mr Blaze said.
“They won’t be turned on until late in the construction program, around February.”
Paving of the pedestrian areas is in full swing.
The ninth and final load of Italian paving stone arrived this week and the contractor continues to open sections of the footpath as they are completed.
Work is scheduled to start this fortnight on one of the last stages of footpath.
The old pavers will come up in zone 7, outside the old Pullins building, so the utilities underneath can be upgraded.
As with previous sections, the contractor will then prepare a concrete bed for the new pavers.
Crews are working morning and night to deliver the project on time.
“The program is quite tight, so to keep to the timeline the contractor has split the shifts,” Mr Blaze said.
The next instalment in this series on The Levee updates will appear in the Mercury in a fortnight.