It has been a long time coming but more barricades along one of Sydney's premier shopping streets for the troubled $2.1 billion light rail project are being removed, giving way to pedestrian-friendly strips.

Construction barriers were removed on George Street between Martin Place and King Street on Saturday, while those at Circular Quay are due to be removed by next week.

Under the most recent timetable, the consortium building the line has said it will remove barricades along George Street between Circular Quay and Liverpool Street by this month. Barriers in front of shops along the rest of the line on George Street near Chinatown were expected to stay until January.

Transport Minster Andrew Constance said he was hopeful the ALTRAC consortium would meet the deadlines for barrier removal given the "number of workers on some of those construction zones".