Pavements and road on Union Street get spruced up

06 September 2021

Pavements, doorways, and roads in the Union Street area are currently getting an Autumn spruce-up with a big pressure wash, clean, repair, patch, tree-trim, paint, and plant along the one-mile-long stretch together with seven nearby roads.

Grime, moss, and weeds are getting removed, minor road repairs are being carried out, steel fences and bollards are being repainted, and winter plants are this week being planted, on the city’s main thoroughfare in an operation involving environmental and roads staff.

Aberdeen City Council Leader Councillor Jenny Laing said: “We usually carry out a pressure wash, de-weed and de-mossing every few months on Union Street due to the dirt and grime which collects on the granite and Caithness slab pavements.

“We organised for an additional spruce-up to carry out extra tidying and repairing as work continues behind the scenes for the longer-term improvements to Union Street’s streetscape as part of the City Centre Masterplan.

“The ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures are particularly good at showing the difference the cleaning work makes and we hope people visiting our shops, pubs, and restaurants will enjoy the cleaner Union Street.”

The work on Union Street includes power-washing pavements and doorways on Union Street and 20/30yds into side streets, and the same on Bridge Street, Market Street, Broad Street, Castle Street, St Nicholas Street, Belmont Street, and Back Wynd.

It also includes removing chewing gum, painting street furniture, replacing ashtrays and tops of big belly bins, replacing some litter bins on the same streets, and trimming trees at the Smith Screen.

A total of five people from the City Council’s environmental team have been involved including the usual cleansing team for the street, painting, and pressure washing. The usual planting up of plant boxes and window boxes, litter-picking and street sweeping is also being carried out.

The roads team has also been undertaking additional gully emptying, lifting and replacing damaged isolated slabs, signage repairs, and road patching.

The bulk of the roads team’s work is all expected to be finished this week and the environment team’s will continue through September.