Speakers Corner: North East Link

The North East Link: an introduction

The North East Link (NEL) is a freeway-standard road being built by the Victorian Government. It will link the Metropolitan Ring Road (M80) in Greensborough to the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen Road. The project is jointly funded by the Australian and Victorian governments.

The project continues to be controversial on many grounds and has attracted criticism from community and business interests, local government and transport planning experts.  Opposition to the project covers its environmental, social, commercial and economic impacts and the unsubstantiated claims regarding the benefits it will deliver.  These issues are discussed in articles posted here.

Go here for some background to the project.  Further discussion of the case against NEL can be accessed at the Stop the North East Link Alliance website here.

The pieces we publish here will  reflect the views of the writer.  We publish them here because we want to contribute to the public debate by giving readers access to  the discussion around the issues involved. The opinions expressed remain those of the writer; it should not be taken that Eastsider News and ICNG  necessarily supports the views expressed.

If you wish to have your say on any issue posted here, please email us at eastsidernews1@gmail.com

Air pollution from the North East link and school children’s health

Barry Watson

The North East Link Project (NELP) Environmental Effects Statement (EES) shows that many air pollution breaches of PM2.5 µg/m3 fine particle pollution limits would occur with the construction of NE Link.

Other pollutants harmful to health are expected to rise with the massive increases in traffic on the Eastern Freeway. These include nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone and benzenes.

Area close to schools and playing fields set to become an air pollution ‘hot spot’

Physical activity such as sport increases the potential exposure to these pollutants and children are more vulnerable to negative health effects including asthma, heart attacks, cardiovascular disease, lung disease, stroke and cancer.

The NELP EES modelled air pollution location close to three college sporting fields, Veneto Soccer, Bulleen Sports Oval, Belle Vue Primary School and Freeway Golf Course. This showed that PM2.5 fine particle pollution generated by motor vehicles will breach the EES 24 hour limits near these schools and sporting precincts. These breaches are expected to occur frequently.

The Environment Protection Authority has confirmed that it has ‘No Statutory Powers’ to enforce air pollution regulatory compliance or intervention action for NE Link.

Go here www.eastsidernews.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/NELP-EPA-Fact-Sheet.pdf to find references that support claims made in this article, including those regarding cognitive decline in children. For more discussion of this issue and to sign up to the Stop North East Link Alliance, go to their website at  https://stopnortheastlink.net.au/

The NE Link Project and children’s health

John Young

Mr Barry Watson’s leading article in the March 2024 edition of Eastsider News succinctly covers the risks to the residents of the north eastern suburbs from air pollution resulting from the exponential increase in air pollution from the North East Link. He continues this discussion in an accompanying article in the current edition.

Mr Watson expresses the concerns of many opponents to this project including Stop North East Link Alliance (SNELA). SNELA has actively and unsuccessfully lobbied government decision makers about this project over a long time. The numerous submissions and letters they have written opposing this project have been ignored by NELP and the government.

Whilst SNELA’s concerns relates to the entire project including the widening of the Eastern Freeway to accommodate thousands more vehicles, we consider that a ‘hot spot’ exists at the southern tunnel portal, the unfiltered ventilation stack and the Los Angeles style ‘spaghetti junction’ in Bulleen.

The area chosen by NELP for the portal where thousands of vehicles come off the freeway could not be worse from an air pollution perspective surrounded by schools and sports playing fields as it is.

Impact on children

Children are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of air pollution including asthma, heart attacks, cardiovascular disease, lung disease, stroke and cancer (Reference: Walter C et al; (2023), Health Impacts Associated with traffic emissions in Australia, Melbourne Climate Futures, University of Melbourne).

Impaired cognitive development, respiratory infections and reduced lung development in children are some of the other health issues associated with vehicle emissions. A study of children’s health and air pollution in Australia cited in the above reference states that a 54% increased risk of children developing asthma occurred with just a four parts per billion increase in nitrogen dioxide. Note that several other vehicle emission pollutants also cause asthma.

Sensitive Receptors

Sensitive receptors include unborn children, children, the elderly, indigenous Australians, people with underlying health problems and disadvantaged groups.

A look at a map will show that a substantial number of ‘sensitive receptors’ to health effects caused by motor vehicles are located within 500 metres of the proposed road. The locations include:

• the sporting fields and playgrounds of schools including Marcellin College and sports playing fields, Belle Vue Primary School, St. Clements Primary School, Kalker Montessori Kindergarten, Ivanhoe East Primary School, Trinity Grammar sporting complex, and Carey sporting complex and.
• The grounds of AFL, cricket, archery, soccer, aero modellers’ club facilities and Freeway Public Golf Course
• The Veneto Club and The Manningham Club and Hotel

Other sensitive receptors within one kilometre are Boroondara Park Primary School and Boroondara Pre-school.

Action is needed now

Tunnelling on North East Link is expected to begin soon. Two 4,000-tonne tunnel boring machines are in the final stages of assembly, concrete tunnel segments are being built and a covered conveyer belt and shed are now in place to load dirt and rock onto trucks. And yet these concerns are still to be addressed.

These concerns are heightened by the knowledge that that the Victorian Environment Protection Authority had NO specific legislation controlling pollutant emissions from road traffic. The EPA relies on Environmental Reference Standards which whilst adopted in legislation for the control of emissions from industry and the like they have no statutory powers to enforce compliance by NELP or intervention action.

SNELA has prepared a leaflet titled How safe is it for your kids to play sport at Marcellin College or Belle Vue Primary School?. This is being distributed in a large area surrounding the catchment of these two schools and some other schools and kindergartens nearby They will also be sent to key decision makers, politicians and environment groups.

To learn more about why SNELA opposes this project, go to https://stopnortheastlink.net.au/. The many resources on this site will provide useful material when advocating to politicians and other decision makers that they need to pay serious attention to the negative impacts of this project. These include the Premier, local politicians, the Ministers for Education, Health, Transport Infrastructure, the Environment Protection Authority and to the Media.

The North East Link: A question of traffic noise

Barry Watson

Noise can be annoying or disturbing. Over time, if the noise continues or is too loud, it can impact your health and wellbeing, especially when noise disrupts your sleep. The World Health Organisation 2009 (WHO 2009) has reported that night noise above 55 decibels is likely to cause adverse health effect including cardiovascular disease. According to Victoria’s Environment Protection Agency ongoing noise can also cause headaches, increased blood pressure, fatigue, irritability, poorer reading comprehension and attention in children and hearing damage when the noise is loud.

In the light of these concerns, questions are being asked as to whether the objectives Government has adopted for the NE Link are sufficient to protect human health.

The Planning Minister Richard Wynne approved the objective for daytime noise on all parts of the project to be no more than 63 decibels. His initial objective for night-time noise of 55 decibels was subsequently increased to 58 decibels (measured at a building’s ground floor level only) by the NEL Project Team. Authorities claim these noise objectives are based on comprehensive information collection and modelling that mapped existing noise and future conditions.

Design of the information collection studies was compromised by incomplete coverage of important factors and a failure to incorporate established facts and protocols.

In monitoring existing road conditions, information was not collected for known ‘hotspots’.  This included the exclusion of noise near overpasses and ramps and other known high noise locations. Aggravating factors such as downwind noise and increased noise at the upper level of building structures were not measured. No account was taken of the finding by the NELP Environment Effects Statement (ESS) that 155 properties would exceed 63 decibels.

The studies failed to fulfil the specific Scoping Requirements set out for the EES, particularly for night-time noise. The Scoping Requirements refer to the 2009 World Health Organisation (WHO) document which recommends 40 decibels for night-time at the upper level of a building. This is well below NELP’s 58 decibels at ground floor only. NSW policy for night-time new roads is 50 decibels or 55 decibels for existing roads, both at the upper level of a building.

Road traffic noise limits were discussed in 2019 at the North East Link Project Inquiry and Advisory Committee (IAC) meetings. The IAC expressed uncertainty and questioned whether ‘… the quoted diurnal difference which has been estimated from actual measurements to date will hold true in the long term, especially as the Project is espoused to be a major freight route. Freight trucks could potentially be drawn to the Project during non-peak times during the night. If traffic volumes during the night-time period are substantially different from existing traffic levels, then the anticipated decrease in night-time noise levels may not occur’.

The claim that most properties would be protected by upgrading existing noise walls, building new high-quality noise walls and applying other approaches such as low-noise road surfaces should also be challenged. Open grade low noise asphalt already exists on the Eastern Freeway and will not contribute to any further improvements. Current advice is that vertical concrete wall systems, that do little to absorb noise, will continue to be used in preference to best practice solutions such as Swiss acoustic noise walls.

North East Link: generation of pollution

Barry Watson

Pollution generated by diesel powered vehicles on the proposed North East Link (NELP) has not been adequately addressed by the various authorities involved says Barry Watson.  Research by Mr Watson, a resident of the City of Manningham demonstrates that this massive road project will lead to a significant increase in PM2.5 air pollution in the area due to the large volume of diesel trucks expected to use the road.

PM2.5 pollution comprises particulate matter suspended in the air and of a size so small they can get deep into the lungs and into the bloodstream. Exposure over long periods can cause adverse health effects.  It mainly comes from motor vehicles, wood burning heaters and industry.

Mr Watson recently spoke to officers of the City of Manningham seeking their assistance for his bid to get Victorian Environment Protection Authority to undertake a SEPP (State Environmental Planning Policy) 12 month impact study.  Data of existing fine air particles caused by diesel trucks plus the NELP estimate that truck numbers will increase to 55% have been used to graph the expected pollution levels.  This points to levels exceeding World Health Organisation recommended limits and State Environment Policy.  This would suggest substantial grounds for undertaking such an impact study.

This item is based on material supplied by Barry Watson.  

North East Link. Potential loss of land use on the NE Link Route. Reckless irresponsibility, missed opportunities

John Young

Unless action is taken to stop this disastrous project the community will be permanently affected by the loss of many important benefits for our local environment. Existing parkland and sporting facilities including a tennis club and sections of a public golf course will be buried under concrete, wildlife habitat will be destroyed, houses and dozens of existing businesses will be bulldozed, creeks will be barrel drained and communities will be divided.

Once these community assets and beneficial uses are destroyed, they will be gone forever to be replaced by a ‘Los Angeles’ style traffic sewer which will not solve congestion problems.

To read more, please click here.

STOP NE LINK ALLIANCE

Stop NE Link Alliance (SNEL); a group of concerned local residents and affiliated environmental organisations including, Sustainable Cities, a joint arrangement between Friends of the Earth and the Public Transport Users Association; Friends of Banyule, Warringal Conservation Society, Blackburn and District Tree Preservation Society and other like minded organisations

North East Link: its impact on the Ringwood Metropolitan Activity Centre

Philip Daw, President of the Heatherdale Community Action Group (HCAG)

This article comprises extracts from a paper written by Philip Daw, the President of HCAG. The full paper was first published on the HCAG website here: https://hcag.online/home/ on 25 August 2022. Thank you to HCAG for allowing Eastsider News to publish this extract.

There are a number of unresolved issues arising from the North East Link project. The HCAG document, however, focuses on specific issues arising from the North East Link that impact on the Ringwood Metropolitan Activity Center (RMAC), and solutions and timelines needed to address them. To read more, please click here.

More Rail not Roads

Cynthia Pilli
At the forthcoming State Election, I will seek to be a candidate in the Warrandyte electorate, standing for ‘More Rail not Roads’. My late husband, Tonu Pilli and I have lived in the Warrandyte District electorate since 1966 and raised four children, now adults. I have consequently witnessed many changes in our community, including those impacting our environment and the health of its community.

To read more, please click here

North East Link: vital infrastructure or environmental disaster?

Leigh Naunton

The North East Link is a massive road and tunnel project which will sweep down from the current end of the Ring Road in Greensborough to connect to the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen Road, next to Bellevue Primary School. A huge interchange is to be built there, requiring the relocation of the Boroondara Tennis Centre.

The tunnel, under the course of the Yarra in its southern section, will extend from Lower Plenty Road in Rosanna, commencing with an enormous trench; and go to just south of the Veneto Club in Bulleen Road. There will be another interchange at Manningham Road with the consequent loss of many businesses and properties and a 300+-year old National Trust classified tree, one of 26,000 trees lost along the corridor.

The Eastern Freeway will be widened, with up to 24 lanes, and much of its median strip will go, killing any possibility of rail to Doncaster. Traffic will increase on many feeder and off-take roads, including Bulleen Road and Doncaster Road. Preparations have started in the northern section, generating noise and dust and blocking access to people’s houses. Sewer and other service works are about to commence. But no major contract has yet been signed, giving hope the project can be stopped.

Why is this happening?

Traffic, especially trucks, on Rosanna Road and elsewhere, is an issue. The main alternative, with a longer tunnel under Greensborough from the end of the Ring Road, would be costlier. The road planners might think that increased traffic on the Eastern Freeway will create pressure for a rebirth of the East-West Link. The Ring Road is unfinished business. And governments love big projects – it makes them look like they are doers.

The main reason, however, is that successive Victorian governments have been caught in the roads thinking rut, and have become locked into building roads instead of substantially improving public and active transport and freight by rail. The proportion of trips made in cars has not declined in the last thirty years. That was always bad. In this climate and ecological crisis it is intolerable.

Does this project stack up?

From 1972, when community action stopped the first version of this project, the community has pushed back, saying the cost is too high and superhighways ruin our environment and health with emissions and noise. Yet we are still stuck in the 1970s, too reliant on cars. There have always been superior solutions: better public transport, pedestrian and bike routes, rail freight from hubs and, especially now, more working from home.

Now there are now even more compelling reasons to rethink our reliance on road transport: our city is clogged with cars and trucks; vehicle emissions are 18% of total greenhouse gases and rising; electric vehicles are no answer, as about half the particles are from tyres and brakes, and cars keep us locked into car parks instead of urban parks; tunnels produce massive waste some of which is toxic; and our green spaces and urban wildlife, already under immense pressure, are devastated in the corridors of these projects.

A series of experts report that the $16 billion project does not stack up economically as a COVID recovery exercise, a cost to Victorians, or a solution to our infrastructure problems.

What is your Council doing about this?

The four Councils in the path of this project, Banyule, Boroondara, Manningham and Whitehorse, seemed to agree. They started legal action against the North East Link Authority (NELA), on the grounds that the Environmental Effects Statement was not about the final plan, but a draft.

Then they pulled out before the case went to court, and NELA gave them a “seat at the table” for the final design process and some cash for minor roads-related projects. Each signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), including a confidentiality clause under which they can tell their constituents only what is already in the public domain, thus preventing Councillors from disclosing any harmful effects that come to their attention. NELA is refusing to release the MoU.

What about community action?

Now that the Councils have capitulated, the community is stepping up. Community groups long opposed to the project have banded together as the #StopNorthEastLink Alliance. They are contacting all candidates in the four Council areas asking them to commit to oppose the project and withdraw from the confidentiality agreement.

They are urging all concerned citizens to do the same. Can they succeed? Is this a lost cause? The groups say the stakes are too high to give up, and they deserve strong support in their endeavour; community action has stopped massive projects before including the 1970s version of this one; and most importantly, if we do not join the fight against destructive development we are complicit in our own fate.

Leigh Naunton is a 40-year resident of Boroondara, a retired psychologist and program evaluation consultant, and is active in climate-related campaigns including #StopNorthEastLink, Kooyong Climate Change Alliance and #StopAdani. He can be contacted at leigh@naunton.name

This article first appeared in Edition 2 October 2020 of Eastsider News