Adelaide Hills Council is managing the delivery of the extension of the Amy Gillett pathway from Mount Torrens to Birdwood. The extension will provide an additional 5.2 km of shared pathway. There will be a trailhead at Oval Road, Mount Torrens, and at Birdwood, it will terminate near the junction of Bleeze Street and William Street Birdwood.

The project is a $5.7M initiative jointly funded by the Council ($500,000), Federal Government ($2,600,000), and State Government ($2,600,000).

The Council has just received its final access and funding agreements, all signed by the State Government, allowing us to commence work on the old railway corridor.

Since the Council resolved to undertake the construction in February of this year, the project team has been working in the background, completing our design for the shared path and the bridges. We have also completed our application to the Native Vegetation Council and have received approval to remove the required vegetation to facilitate the construction of the path.

There will be two new bridges over Angas Creek and William Creek. These bridges will replace those removed when the railway line was decommissioned. The other bridge is the original one over the top of Burford’s Hill, just north of Mount Torrens. This bridge requires extensive repair and rehabilitation as part of the project.

Our Construction Manager, Craig Cockshell, and our Arborist, Damian Brennan, have been busy conducting initial investigation works and preparing contracts to commence work on the corridor. We have set up a site office and vegetation processing areas off Burford’s Hill Road. This Council-owned parcel of land is ideally located as a staging area for the works. The area was heavily impacted by the Cudlee Creek fires, and the early works have cleared a lot of dead and dying trees, making it suitable for use as a trailhead and natural open space for path users.

Craig has engaged a contractor who is ready to commence construction works at the southern end (Mount Torrens) of the project. This has been scheduled to start on-ground construction and build an initial 500m of the path to meet the milestone requirements of our federal funding partner.

We will be tendering for the bridge construction and the shared pathway soon, with major civil construction contract works scheduled to commence in September/October 2024. The target completion date is June 2025.