Noise from thousands of trucks driving on residential streets in Yarraville each day is “high enough to be of significant concern”, the Environment Protection Authority has found.
But pollution from vehicle emissions was found to pose “little risk to residents”, with measurements recording just one day of unhealthily poor air quality over a three-month period.
The EPA last week published the results from the first three months of a 12-month monitoring program of noise and air quality levels along Francis Street in Melbourne’s inner west.
Almost 9000 trucks were counted in a 24-hour period in March on Francis Street, Yarraville, including 649 trucks after the night-time curfew. Photo: Michael Clayton-Jones
EPA director of strategic relations Matt Vincent said that while air pollutant levels measured in Yarraville fell within guidelines designed to protect human health, they were slightly higher than those found at measuring stations in Footscray and Alphington.
Noise levels were an average 77 decibels on weekdays and 73 decibels on weekends, which the EPA found troubling, although there is no threshold for acceptable noise on older roads in Victoria, such as Francis Street.
The most recent VicRoads truck count, in March, recorded almost 9000 truck movements on Francis Street in a 24-hour period. Of those, 649 occurred during the night curfew.
VicRoads and the Maribyrnong City Council are reviewing the truck curfew after the most recent annual truck count found numbers were again rising.
Adam Carey, The Age, 8 October 2012
To read more go to: http://m.theage.com.au/victoria/epa-concerned-over-noise-created-by-trucks-in-the-inner-west-20121008-2782m.html
