Lane
Cove Tunnel Opening Maps
Residents
may be wondering how they will go about getting onto or off the
Lane Cove Tunnel. Follow the link to the RTA's "Lane
Cove Tunnel Interactive Maps" to find out how.
Lane
Cove Tunnel Opening and Post Opening Information
Council conducted
and information evening on the 7th November 2006 to discuss the
following issues in relation to the Lane Cove Tunnel: -
- Tunnel Opening
- Surface Roads
- Construction Works
- Traffic Impacts
- Public Transport
The following
documents were presented on the evening: -
In addition
Council has prepared the following audio files of the proceedings
of the evening in MP3 format:-
Filter
our Tunnel NOW
Lane Cove Council continues to pursue the RTA and the Lane Cove
Tunnel Company and Contractors in regards to incorporating proven
filtration technology within the Lane Cove Tunnel.
Thiess
John Holland (TJH)Lane Cove Tunnel Display Centre
Thiess John
Holland (TJH) Lane Cove Tunnel display centre has been moved from
401 Pacific Highway to 34 Waterloo Road North Ryde on the corner
of Lane Cove Road.
Residents
are reminded that if they have complaints of any kind to ring Toll
Free 1800 009 280 and TJH will respond to them.
Terms
of Reference for Joint Select Committee on the Cross City Tunnel
Also add a section at the top to advise that the Terms of Reference
for
Joint Select Committee on the Cross City Tunnel has been expanded
to include:
(g) the role of Government agencies in relation to the negotiation
of the contract with the Lane Cove Tunnel Consortium,
(h) the extent to which the substance of the Lane Cove Tunnel contract
was determined through community consultation processes,
(i) the methodology used by the Roads and Traffic Authority for
tendering and contract negotiations in connection with the Lane
Cove Tunnel, and
(j) any other related matters.
Report
into Tunnel Subsidence Released
Thiess John
Holland has presented the findings of its inquiry into the cause
of the tunnel collapse that occurred on 2 November 2005 during excavation
for an exit ramp from the Lane Cove Tunnel. The 40 page report prepared
by Emeritus Professor Ted Brown AC was released on 19 January, 2006,
and may be viewed by clicking on the document listed in the column
at the right of this page. It may take a while to download.
Reoccupation
of 15 Longueville Road
Lane
Cove Council on Wednesday 18 January, 2006, signed off on reoccupation
of the unit block at 15 Longueville Road, which was affected by
the Lane Cove Tunnel collapse, after being given satisfactory assurance
by its independent engineer that the building and its site is secure.
While residents of the unit block at 15 Longueville Road are being
given the green light to return to their homes, the damaged unit
block at 11-13 Longueville Road can not be re-occupied at this time.
click
here for related media release
Lane
Cove Tunnel Collapse
Media
Releases issued in response to the Tunnel Collapse:
Mayor
of Lane Cove Calls For Tunnel Reassurance in Writing
Council
Stands By Residents Not Consulted About Relocation of Ventilation
Tunnel
Mayor
Wants Air Cleared on Tunnel “We Don’t Want to Enter
The Blame Game”
Epping
Road
Council
has raised many concerns in regards to Thiess John Holland's Lane
Cove Tunnel Project - Epping Road Surface Modification Works - Sub
Plan C report, which includes the proposed urban design and landscaping
for part of the Epping Road corridor, the Epping Rd cycleway and
the Bus Interchange just east of Parklands Avenue.
On
Monday night, July 18, 2005, Council adopted its comprehensive response
to TJH's Sub Plan C report. The key issues addressed in Council's
response are the scope of the plan, bus interchange, pedestrian
overbridge, cycleway and pedestrian path safety, ownership and maintenance
responsibilities, power lines and street lighting, bus stops, vegetation,
traffic, urban design and landscaping and the Canberra Ave vent
intake structure. Council's proposed response also notes that both
NRMA and DIPNR refused a request to meet with Council staff to discuss
aspects of Sub Plan C, although DIPNR has agreed to meet after it
receives submissions.
To
view a media release relating to this issue click here
A
copy of Council's
response "Lane Cove Council - Review of Sub Plan C, Epping
Road Surface Modifications", as of 22 July, 2005, can be downloaded
from the far right of this page. NB:
The PDF document is large and may take time to download.
Lane
Cove Tunnel Stacks
Above: Artist
impression of proposed design of Lane Cove Tunnel's Eastern Stack
 
Pictured
above (Eastern stack)
Pictured above (Western stack)
The community
will have to live with these unhealthy and unsightly chimneys belching
out pollution collected from over 50,000 cars in nearly 4 kilometres
of tunnel every day . This concentrated pollution will be breathed
in by Lane Cove residents, workers and children for many years to
come.
The eastern
stack is an unsightly stack with wings tacked on to allow testing
of the polluted air. It stands in full view of apartment buildings
and across the road from residential areas in Lane Cove and Artarmon
and adjacent to commercial premises.
The stacks
will soon be built.
Lane
Cove Tunnel Study Needed NOW
Lane Cove
Council calls on the NSW Health Minister to immediately start monitoring
the Lane Cove area by collecting air quality data that can be used
for comparing the health impacts following the opening of Lane Cove
Tunnel.
To be able to obtain at least 12 months of background data, the
State Government needs to start straight away on designing the study
in agreement with experts
Traffic
Volumes in Lane Cove Tunnel Underestimated
Lane Cove
Council has again written to the Lane Cove Tunnel Company demanding
that they publicly release the traffic volumes and number of heavy
vehicles, on an hour by hour daily basis, being used in the design
of the Lane Cove Tunnel project. A Council examination of the EIS
traffic projections has demonstrated that the projections are completely
invalid, and consequently, the air quality impact assessments based
on invalid traffic projections are also invalid. To view this examination
see the link on the right of this page entitled "Discussion
on How Valid is the LCT EIS for Traffic". It is a large document
and may take some time to download.
Lane
Cove Tunnel Company needs to be transparent in regard to the total
traffic and heavy vehicle volumes between 2006 and 2016 having regard
to a major expansion of the Port Botany facilities, connection of
the F3 to M2, growth in the North west sector and infill higher
density development within existing suburbs.
NSW
Health Report Rejected Three leading
experts have rejected the NSW Health’s study on the M5 East
Ventilation Stack.
The three experts found that the untested assumptions used by NSW
Health were poorly founded and potentially misleading.
The NSW Health report is entitled “Investigation into the
Possible Health Impacts of the M5 East Motorway Stack on the Turrella
Community Phase 2 – a Cross-Sectional Survey of Symptom Prevalence“.
In reviewing the report, Dr Peter Best, of Katestone Environmental,
Professor David R. Fox from the Australian Centre For Environmetrics
and Professor Michael R Moore of the National Research Centre For
Environmental Technology, have found that that there was little
or no evidence to support the NSW Health claims about there being
“no scientific justification to conduct further epidemiological
studies into the reported health effects in the community surrounding
the M5 East stack”.
Lane Cove
Council has called for the withdrawl of the NSW Health report. Lane
Cove Council initiated the review of this report, supported by other
Sydney Councils, because it was concerned the report was being used
by the State Government to justify building tunnels without filtration
The Katestone
review can be read in full by clicking on the link listed at the
top right of this page.
Meeting with Minister
The then Roads Minister, Carl Scully, met with Lane Cove's Mayor
and General Manager on 28 May, 2004, promising little for Lane Cove
Tunnel, pending results of a filtration trial in one of Sydney's
tunnels.
Even though the Minister directed the RTA to undertake the trial,
the RTA Managers refuse to accept that there is something wrong
with the air quality in Sydney tunnels or from the ventilation stacks,
demonstrating their reluctance to become world leaders.
Previous claims by the RTA include: that proven filtration technology
in use in tunnels overseas were placeboes and not cost effective,
that the technology was installed in overseas tunnels and never
used, or that the Japanese had a long way to go with filtration
in only 40 out of 8000 tunnels. The reality is that the technology
is proven over many years, is cost effective, is used and is installed
in Japan in 40 out of 95 tunnels over 2 km long. The Lane Cove Tunnel
is now 3.6 km long.
Air Quality Consultative Committee
Lane Cove Tunnel Project's contractors - Thiess John Holland has
established an air quality community consultative committee which
will have input into the design construction and operation of the
Lane Cove Tunnel.
Community Liaison Groups
Three (3) Community Liaison Groups have been set up, for the construction
works to the west of Mowbray Road, between Mowbray Road and the
Pacific Highway and for the Pacific Highway Works east along the
Gore Hill Freeway.
Minutes of these meetings are on the Lane Cove Tunnel Project Website
at http://www.lanecovetunnelproject.com.au
Auditor-General
Lane Cove Council is appalled that not only is the State Government
not installing filtration in Lane Cove Tunnel, but now it is delivering
Lane Cove more pollution with less dilution.
Council has learned that the RTA has contracted with the Lane Cove
Tunnel Company to build Lane Cove Tunnel without the 1600m eastern
ventilation tunnel, which was approved by the Minister for Planning.
Councillors on Monday night, 7 June, 2004, considered a report which
listed the ventilation design changes as confirmed by the RTA. They
include:
a) increasing the Tunnel length by 145m, thereby increasing the
amount of in-tunnel exhaust emissions
b) deletion of about 1600m of exhaust air tunnel from midway along
the tunnel to the eastern exhaust stack
c) discharging all of the westbound tunnel and nearly half of the
eastbound tunnel (under congested tunnel conditions) via the western
stack increasing the pollution over Lane Cove West and
d) reduction of fan capacities by more than 20 per cent
Council is referring the matter to the Auditor General.. Council
believes the changes are major and will result in an increase in
polluted exhaust emissions blowing out of the western stack, making
them major changes for residents who live around that stack. Such
major changes in the ventilation design should be advertised as
being significantly different to that approved by the Minister for
Planning
Construction
Tunnel project construction has commenced at the Mowbray Park and
Marden Street sites with tunnelling expected to commence during
June, 2004.
Filtration Technology Trial
NSW Roads Minister Carl Scully on March 14, 2004, announced that
state of the art tunnel filtration technology used in around 40
tunnels in Japan will be trialled in a Sydney motorway tunnel.
Lane Cove Council welcomed the trial announcement, however, does
not see the need to trial what has already been proven to work successfully
overseas.
Copy of the media release issued by the RTA in relation to this
announcement available for download
.
The RTA has called for a Registration of Interest from organisations
to design and install a pilot filtration plant. However, it appears
that the plant will be rated only to handle a minimum of 50 cubic
metres of air per second. Council does not consider this a serious
trial given that around 1300 cubic metres of air per second is proposed
to be extracted at each ventilation stack of the Lane Cove Tunnel.
Click on the link below for a copy of the RTA's media release relating
to registrations of interest for the trial: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/newsevents/2004_04_tunnelfiltration.html
Minister Scully has accepted that Electrostatic Precipitator filtration
technology (ESPs) works and that Lane Cove Council was instrumental
in driving the Government to look at the successful Japanese filtration
technology. However, the Minister still wants to trial the technology.
Background
In December, 2002, planning approval for the Lane Cove Tunnel was
granted by the NSW Minister for Planning. On 1 October, 2003, Minister
Carl Scully announced the preferred consortium to design, construct
operate and maintain the motorway at a cost of $1.1 billion.The
Lane Cove Tunnel Consortium is made up of Thiess Pty Limited, Transfield
Holdings Pty Limited and ABN AMRO.
For Council's response is available for download
.
While Lane Cove Council has applauded this outcome, Council is angered
and dismayed by the State Government's decision to proceed with
a design that includes unfiltered stacks belching out toxic fumes
at each end of the municipality. The RTA has stated that the Tunnel
will be ventilated by two emission stacks – one at the western end,
in the Lane Cove West Industrial Park in Sirius Road, and one at
the eastern end, in the Artarmon industrial area, between the western
end of Marden Street and the Pacific Highway.The Lane Cove Tunnel
is expected to be open to traffic in 2007.
Air Quality
Council is pushing the State Government to install filtration and
detoxifications systems in the tunnel to address serious air quality
concerns.
These concerns have been supported by an independent expert report
assessing Lane Cove Tunnel's effects on air quality, prepared by
Dr Peter Best of Katestone Group.
In June, 2003, Council met with Minister for Roads and Housing,
Carl Scully, to discuss the findings of this report. Although the
Minister gave no undertaking to install filtration in the tunnel,
he agreed at the June 10, 2003 meeting to review Dr Best's independent
report.
Dr Best will also be asked to review the NSW Health report which
is technically and analytically flawed. That report showed that
residents who spent most of their time living near the M5 East stack
showed more frequent / Severe symptoms of up to 20% more than a
comparative group well away from the M5 Stack.
Community health is affected by vent stacks and it is your health
this Council is fighting for to have filtration technology used
to clean the vented exhaust fumes
Community Meetings
Hundreds of residents attended two Lane Cove Tunnel Forums in September
2003 (held at Ryde RSL and St Ignatius College), to learn more about
the need for proper in-tunnel filtration and detoxification systems
in the Tunnel.
The crowds gathered to hear health and engineering experts explain
how the RTA's proposed ventilation stacks for the tunnel were a
proven risk to the health of the local residents and the 100,000
Sydney commuters expected to use the tunnel daily. They also heard
overseas evidence of how in_tunnel filtration systems are operating
in Japan and should be installed in the Lane Cove Tunnel to address
these health concerns.
Related media
release available for download .
Tunnel Co-ordinator
Council has appointed John Lee as tunnel coordinator to manage matters
relating to the construction of the tunnel, including such matters
as EPA air quality standards and local traffic. Mr. Lee has extensive
experience in Local Government both in NSW and Queensland as well
as in delivery of major projects. His role will be to ensure that
Council and Community interests are properly represented throughout
the construction of the Tunnel project.
He can be contacted at Lane Cove Council. Phone 9911 3564 or on
email jlee@lanecove.nsw.gov.au
For More Information
To view Lane Cove Tunnel Action Group's submission regarding the
Lane Cove Tunnel EIS click
here .
View the report on air quality by Dr Peter Best of Katestone Group
click here .
View the RTA's Lane Cove Tunnel Preferred Activity Report click
here .
View HEI Perspectives (2002
Health Effects Institute, Boston, USA) .
Contacts Regarding Lane Cove Tunnel
Lane Cove Council: Tunnel Co-ordinator, John Lee on 9911 3564.
Lane Cove Tunnel Action Group: phone- 9427 0131, fax- 9427 6076
or e-mail: jmhmedia@bigpond.com
The Lane Cove Tunnel Information Centre, which is operated by LCTAG,
is open on Wednesday between 12 noon and 2pm and Saturday from 11.30am
to 1.30am. During daylight saving times (not in winter) it is also
open from 5pm to 7pm on Thursdays. The centre is operated from Council's
Community Centre at 164 Longueville Rd, Lane Cove.
Project Website: http://www.lanecovetunnelproject.com.au
TJH have established a display centre at 401 Pacific Highway. Despite
being out of the focus of the community, the Display centre does
have internet access with maps and documents for viewing by the
community.
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