Background

The City of Hobart continues to transform public spaces to revitalise Hobart’s city centre.

As a part of its commitment to improve public spaces in the centre of Hobart, the Hobart City Council has in 2016 and 2017 rebuilt and widened the footpaths and spaces on Morrison Street and on the southern side of Salamanca Place (between Gladstone Street and Montpelier Retreat).

A concept plan has been prepared for a $3.5 million project to improve safety and provide a more enjoyable experience for pedestrians moving through the Salamanca Place area.

The next part of these planned works focuses on improving the pedestrian connections between Salamanca Place and the Hobart CBD, and the upgrading of the public spaces in the Salamanca Lawns themselves.

The main ongoing concerns that are hoped to be addressed by the planned project are:

• To improve the pedestrian crossing across Montpelier Retreat for pedestrians walking along the Salamanca Place footpath (the pedestrian crossing from ‘The Whaler’ to ‘Retro’;
• To simplify the complicated areas of roads and grassed areas where Morrison Street meets Castray Esplanade and Gladstone Street, and to provide high quality pedestrian connections through this space between the Salamanca Place footpath, the Salamanca Lawns, the Princes Wharf event space, the Hobart Waterfront, the Parliamentary Lawns, and the CBD via Murray Street and Morrison Street.
• To make walking through this area feel safe and comfortable for people with disabilities.
• To reduce the number of people ‘tripping’ and hurting themselves during the Salamanca Market and special events such as the ‘Taste of Tasmania’ by reducing the number of level changes, and to make spaces that can be better and easier used for these events.