Submission Examples

2013 update

Please note the information on this page details YCATs 2008 campaign relating to Sir Rod Eddingtons Investing in Transport report.

For regular updates on YCATs 2013 campaign related to the  Baillieu  Napthine government’s proposed East West road link, please refer to;


 

OPPOSE ROAD TUNNELS PROPOSED BY EDDINGTON

Here are some of the arguments you could use in a submission or letters:

 

  • Construction of a 4 lane freeways/tollways in concrete Road Tunnels 18 km long through Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs as proposed by Eddington will add to Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions and worsen congestion problems.
  • Major parks – Royal Park and Holland Park – will be destroyed as they will be turned into major tunnel construction sites for 5 to 10 years. Sports fields will be ripped up, community facilities removed & the Royal Park wetlands and water storage areas obliterated. The Road Tunnel will enter CityLink, which will have to be widened by two lanes.
  • Alexandra Parade will be a major funnel for traffic both into the tunnel and into the city. Queens Parade traffic will increase, especially for trucks using the tunnel
  • Smiths Reserve in Fitzroy, The Island in North Fitzroy, and garden reserves along Alexandra Parade will be greatly affected by the additional road space required for the Tunnel entrance.
  • Residential amenity and health of inner city neighbourhoods will be seriously compromised
  • Compulsory acquisition of properties on the route of the Road Tunnels may be enforced. Owners of those properties not acquired will wish they had been due to adverse noise and air polution and isolation due to the massive traffic loads predicted.
  • Polluting vent stacks 12 storeys high will be built near entrances/exits of the Road Tunnels & every 2 to 3 kms on their route.
  • The Road Tunnels are, in reality, a city truck by-pass for the Port of Melbourne and will cause massive surface traffic congestion on surface roads as there are no outlets to the city. The Road Tunnels will not serve commuters or any local communities.
  • The $10 billion earmarked for the 18 kms of Road Tunnel should be diverted into public transport, especially rail extensions to outer suburbs.
  • The road tunnel cannot be justified by traffic demand, or by the studies own economic consultant, and this is despite using wildly optimistic forecasts for the price of petrol.
  • Even the department’s own estimates of annual growth in public transport patronage is over 6% compared to the EWLNA assumption of 2%.
  • Northern Central City Corridor (NCCC) Strategy, Draft (and Final) report August 2003, Department of Infrastructure. The NCCCS concluded that “no further investigation should take place on road tunnel options in the inner north.
  • The Northern Central City Corridor study showed that only demand management will reduce congestion on Alexandra Parade and improve tram speeds in the north south direction.