The Shotover Street Upgrade is now in its final phase on lower Shotover Street Queenstown Lakes District Council director of parks Paul Wilson said.

Once that work was completed the only unfinished areas would be proposed building sites like the Mountaineer site where paving work had been deferred pending redevelopment.

It has been a big project with the need for plenty of patience but the end result is extremely positive Mr Wilson said.

The end of the project did not spell the end of the Central Business District area upgrade with 1 million a year budgeted for each year over the next three years.

There will eventually be a consistent look and feel to the streetscaping that will take the CBD to a new and improved level of presentation Mr Wilson said.

The beauty of the newstyle blue stone pavers was that they improved with aging.

We have had some comment on early staining of the pavers Its a natural product that will develop a patina with time he said.

At the moment the pavers were still wearing in.

We are looking at better ways of keeping them clean in the interim In about a year the pavers will have darkened and will look fantastic In fact you can already see this happening with those laid first on Athol Street Mr Wilson said.

The Shotover Street upgrade was expected to be completed in October.

ENDS

For further information please contact Paul Wilson 03 441 0499

By: Sarah