It has been a struggle over the past few months for anyone who works or heads into town for shopping.
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That has nothing to do with the diversity or attractiveness of Albury’s central business district.
The growing sophistication both in the range of shops and in the cafes being attracted to the city is certainly adding to its vibrancy.
But sometimes it simply can be too hard to find a car park.
That might seem surprising given the substantial number of spaces added just a few years ago with the opening of the Volt Lane multi-deck car park.
Not far away is the Wilson Street multi-deck car park, which is more of an option for nearby office workers given the location and the option of all-day parking.
But these options have been compromised in recent times because of a project to make car parking all that much easier in the city.
That has been with the start to construction of an all-day parking option on the old Kiewa Street car park behind the former tax office building.
Until this site was closed for preparation works for the job, 365 spaces were available.
Given the new multi-deck car park will have 724 all-day parks, the value of the project is obvious.
Nevertheless, as can happen a delay has hit this project that undoubtedly will make life a lot easier for many people.
It has been revealed that the new car park now will not open for at least a further two months, which means temporary car parking arrangements for those who work in the CBD will not change until at least September.
But what is certainly good news for the city is the car park is expected to be ready for the Christmas rush.
In fact, mayor Kevin Mack has spoken of how well the construction project – which the developer is doing while building the Mantra hotel next to the Australian Taxation Office’s headquarters – is going.
That all means a few more months of workers being able to take advantage of all-day parking on the top two levels of the Volt Lane car park, which until the Kiewa Street project began have rarely been used.
Clearly this extra all-day capacity is not enough to cater for everyone’s needs, but it has at least eased the pressure of a situation the city had to go through in order for such a significant project to be undertaken.
