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New solar lights are being added this week to a recently completed walking path in South Orange, in preparation for a new connection for pedestrians and cyclists to the Southern Distributor Road.

Eight new 1 metre-high bollard lights are being installed next to a walking path that’s recently been extended by 215 metres alongside houses in Sundew Circuit in South Orange.

The eight new lights will be installed on a 100-metre section of the path. The new path meets up with footpaths planned to be built next to the Southern Distributor Road.

Orange City Council Infrastructure Committee chair Cr Jack Evans has welcomed the new connection.

“Later this year a footpath will be built from the end of the new path near Sundew Circuit alongside the northern side of the Southern Distributor Road,” Cr Evans said. “That shared path, that’s wide enough to handle both pedestrians and bikes, will stretch past Cecil Road through to the new roundabout to be built at the Shiralee Road intersection.”

“It’s so important to be building these ‘active travel’ connections across Orange. These 2.5 metre wide shared paths deliver convenient and safe places to walk and ride, and having solar bollards in this section will mean added safety.”

The bollard lights are the same design as lights recently installed alongside the Northern Distributor Road between Telopea Way and William Maker Drive.

The lights feature a 360-degree coverage, shining light from a height of 1 metre and spanning a 5-10 metre radius.

As part of the project, new trees will also be planted near the path.

The 215-metre path extension, new bollards lights and nearby landscaping was funded up to $175,000 by the NSW Government’s ‘NSW Get Active Program’.

The new concrete walkway is the latest section of a shared footpath which runs through a tunnel under the western rail line and back towards the centre of Orange.

The lighting component of the project is just over $15,000.