The Levee will open in time for Maitland’s celebration of food, Taste, on March 7 to 8, but the lifestyle precinct will need some finishing touches after the event.
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“The target for us is to have a usable space for Taste,” Maitland City Council civil engineering project manager Greg Blaze said.
“We’ll have additional works after the festival, but it will be outside those central areas.”
Mr Blaze said the project had been on schedule until recently.
“The issue for us has been the rain since Christmas and the hold-up connecting electricity and water.”
Mr Blaze said the priority was to complete the paving.
“When the contractors go to put in the lights, trees and kiosk, they will have to be craned in, so the paving needs to be complete so we can drive on it,” he said.
Contractors have worked on the kiosk off-site and it will be lowered onto a plinth in the street.
A barista, florist or any other suitable person could then lease the kiosk.
“Next week we’ll start to get some of the furniture in, which will make things look a bit different,” Mr Blaze said.
“For an engineer seeing all this [foundation] concrete going down is excellent, but people will be interested to see the furniture.”
Benches, tree surrounds and lamp poles have been fabricated off-site for the project.
Electricians installed the cabling for the street lights and market stalls this week.
Street vendors will be able to plug into power at the base of the lamps or on bollards that retract into the ground when not in use.
Mr Blaze said further heavy rain would disrupt an already tight schedule.
“If it rained two weeks solid we’ll have to cut back the area for completion, but the forecast is only for showers and the expectation is that it will be complete,” he said.
