BEVERLY HILLS NORTH PROGRESS ASSOCIATION 8 Elouera St South,

Beverly Hills. NSW. 2209.21st March 2016 .

To: Ms. Jacqui McLeod, NSW Department of Planning and EnvironmentCC: Mr. Chris Minns, NSW State Parliament Member for Kogarah Ms. Linda Burney, NSW State Parliament Member for Canterbury

Reference: Replacement of Noise Wall above the M5 near the Cooloongatta Rd Bridge

Recent installation of noise wall posts along the M5 development at Beverly Hills has concerned several residents, as they are relying on these noise walls to provide adequate noise protection into the future. These noise walls do not appear to be located in the positions shown in the WestConnex Landscaping Plans and are inconsistent with assurances given at the 22 October 2015 Meeting between BHNPA and WestConnex representatives, and also attended by Fulton-Hogan Engineers and Department of Planning and Environment representatives.

The noise wall construction in question is directly south-east of the Cooloongatta Rd bridge covering the M5 at the end of Elouera St South and Kirrang St South. Figure 1 shows the pre-existing 2.0 metre noise walls on top of a 3.0 metre noise mound, set 5 metres back from the shared pathway.

Figure 1: Pre-Existing Noise Wall SE of Cooloongatta Rd Bridge – End of Elouera St South, showing a 3 metre noise mound and a 2 metre noise wall

Figure 2 shows the position and height of the proposed replacement walls in the same location. According to the Landscaping Plans (Fig. 3), this ‘step-back’ measures 5.0 metres, and is positioned 32 metres east of the bridge. This was confirmed by Steve Tinellis(Fulton-Hogan Engineer) at the October Meeting, who described the 5 metre ‘step-back’ in the noise wall, as “a requirement to secure the footings of the soil-nail retaining wall below.” This is an extraordinary requirement, when the same soil nail

retaining wall on the north-west side of the bridge requires a step-back of only 3 metres. (see Figure 7, p5)

The Landscaping Plan shown in Fig. 3 also indicates a 3.5 metre spacing between the noise wall and the pathway at this position. Fig. 2 shows the actual position of the noise wall posts at the step-back to be more than 6 metres from the retaining wall and only 2.5 metres from the pathway. This spacing is reduced to 1.5 metres further east of this ’step-back’, but according to the Landscaping Plans will have 3 tiers of plants and shrubs in front of the walls.

Figure 2: Construction of replacement noise walls – SE Cooloongatta Rd Bridge, opposite Elouera St South

Figure 3: Landscaping Plan – SE Cooloongatta Rd Bridge (green line labeled NW as position of the new noise wall)

Figure 4 below shows the same ‘step-back’ construction South-West of Cooloongatta Rd bridge. Despite the Landscaping Plans showing this step-back to be the same distance (see Figure 5), this step-back is 4.5 metres, the same height as the noise wall post.

In short, what is being constructed does not comply with the approved plans. Repeated requests to Fulton-Hogan over the past months, for precise measurements of noise wall positions and heights have not been supplied.

Figure 4: Noise Walls South-West of Cooloongatta Rd Bridge – opposite Allambee St South

Figure 5: Landscaping Plan – SW Cooloongatta Rd Bridge

During the October 2015 Meeting, BHNPA provided email assurances from West Connex that all noise walls South-East of the Cooloongatta rd bridge would be 0.5 metres higher that pre-existing. Subsequent assurances from Van Bardzamian (Senior Engineer, WestConnex) and Rachel Elazzi have been that these noise walls were at least 0.5 metres above pre-existing. These assurances have included the following figures:

Location Previous Height from roadway (m)

New Height from roadway (m)

Actual Height (m)

South-EastNear Bridge

36.5 38.8 6.4

South EastOpposite step-back

35.5 37.25 5.0

South-West 4.5

North-West 5.5

North-East 5.0

Table 1: Noise Wall Heights supplied by Van Bardzamian(WestConnex), November 2015

Noise Wall HeightsIn reference back to Fig. 2, it can be seen that the noise wall posts in the south-east section are not achieving the promised “previous height + 0.5 metres”, i.e. 5.5 metres as measured from the shared pathway. The best estimate of the new noise wall height is 3.0 metres on a 1.0 metre mould. This is achieved by estimating the safety barrier at a standard height of 1.0 metre and the post on the retaining wall at a height of 3.5 metres.

As shown in Fig. 6 below, these noise wall heights are actually of lower height, i.e. stepping down 3 times, from the noise walls to the east, which are at a lower elevation. Despite several enquiries to Fulton-Hogan to supply actual noise wall heights and reasons why the noise wall supporting posts diminish in height as the elevation increases from east to west, no explanation has been given.

Figure 6 : Noise Wall posts – South East Cooloongatta Rd Bridge, opposite Elouera St South (i.e. side view of Fig.2), showing 3 ‘step-downs’ in noise wall heights from east to west

It appears that, despite all correspondence, meetings, assurances and promises, what is being constructed does not resemble anything near what pre-existed, let alone improve on it. Once again the EIS process of community consultation on published plans and documents, has proven to be non-existent. Discrepencies between published documents and construction processes are ignored.

Further to this, the timeline for re-installation of noise walls as stated in the EIS, has been completely ignored. Not a single noise wall has been re-constructed. According to the EIS, noise walls were to be removed for a period on 14 weeks before new barriers were installed. Residents are now enduring their 7th month of construction noise without a single shred of noise mitigation installed. Concrete paneling for the motorway below is currently being installed before the noise walls are considered.

The BHNPA requests the assistance of the Department of Planning and Environment in intervene on these matters on behalf on the residents.

Your sincerely

Mr. John EnglishChairperson - Beverly Hills North Progress Association

Figure 7: Noise Walls North-West of Cooloongatta Rd Bridge – opposite Booragul St, showing a 5.5 metre noise wall at a step-back of 3.5 metres from the soil-nail retaining wall below