Albury City Council will spend an extra $100,000 on the work to improve access and parking in one of Albury’s leisure hot spots.

The project had a budget of $400,000, but another $100,000 will be spent adding centre aisle angle parking, street lighting and landscaping to the street between the Albury Sportsground and Hovell Tree Park.

The council’s engineering director, Brad Ferris, said some of the savings made on another project, in Mitchell Road, would be used to complete the work.

The engineering and works committee this week accepted the tender of A.P. Delaney & Co for a job that includes reconstruction of Hume Street west of Wodonga Place intersection and the creation of 81 car parks.

The committee chairman, Cr Henk van de Ven, said the upgrade would be welcomed by all those people who visited the sportsground, Hovell Tree Park, the Murray River and Albury Swim Centre.

“It’s a really well used stretch of road,” Cr van de Ven said.

“It’s right at the centre of one of our key leisure sites. This upgrade is a very important one.

“It will also be a significant boost to the standard and safety of our road network.

“We want our residents to access safe, and functional roadways, especially at such key sites.”

Hume Street will be upgraded between Wodonga Place and the Murray River and 25 car parks and footpaths will be created on the northern side with the piping of an old, disused drain.

The works are expected to take four months to complete and could create minor disruption for patrons attending Albury Tigers matches during the next football season.

The council has saved $200,000 on the reconstruction of Mitchell Road at Table Top, giving it the cash for the extra work.

The council will give the works its seal of approval on Monday night.