Work to replace pedestrian crossings and roundabouts in Newcastle East after the Supercars will be integrated with the multimillion-dollar upgrade of Foreshore Park.
Construction began on June 3 to install a permanent roundabout at Watt Street and Wharf Road as part of remediation works following confirmation the Newcastle 500 would not return to the city in 2024.
The roundabout at Zaara Street and Shortland Esplanade will follow and 15 temporary pedestrian crossings will also be replaced with permanent structures.
The entire works are not yet scoped, however, deputy lord mayor Declan Clausen said they were included in the $1.6 million annual commitment City of Newcastle made to hold the race each year.
"When we agreed to host the Supercars event in Newcastle there was a series of costs that ratepayers agreed to pay," he said.
"The total cost of those was $1.6 million for each year of the event.
"We always knew that at some point Supercars was no longer going to be racing on the streets of Newcastle and there would be a cost to undertake the remediation including to restore the intersections.
"That has been budgeted for and informed part of the city's allocation for Supercars. Obviously, we didn't know exactly when that expense was going to fall due because this has happened now rather than at some point into the future.
"But it was one of the costs that council had committed to funding as part of hosting the event."
The restoration around Newcastle Foreshore will be undertaken in sequence with upgrades to Foreshore Park to minimise disruption, Cr Clausen said.
Heritage considerations will also need to occur before some of the work can take place.
"Given that we are in the East End heritage precinct, there are a range of heritage requirements ," Cr Clausen said.
"That is particularly evident around Camp Shortland. There's more work to do with the NSW government around Camp Shortland because it's not owned by the City of Newcastle.
"There is a direction that exists from Heritage NSW around how future restoration would work. We're still working through the detail of that. There will also need to be some community engagement as to the way that takes place."
Newcastle Liberal councillor Callum Pull was the only councillor who voted against a motion in November 2023 to commence road and public domain restoration works in Newcastle East.
He said on June 4 that the council was "spending millions on some of the best maintained roads in the city... meanwhile we in the west don't even have proper guttering".
Cr Clausen said that statement was "disappointing".
"The decision to undertake these restoration works was supported by Labor, Liberal, Greens and Independent councillors," Cr Clausen said.
"That was a clear decision that we made just in November of last year and the commitment that we made was that works would start this financial year. We're getting on and doing what we promised."
Works at the Wharf Road/Watt Street roundabout will take place at night and are expected to be complete in eight weeks, weather permitting.
