Napthine Blind To East West Flaws by Andrew Herington

The rush to sign a contract for the East West Link has delivered a very poor outcome. The independent Assessment Committee gave the Planning Minister, Matthew Guy plenty of detail about what was wrong with the Linking Melbourne Authority’s design.

Yet, in its blind enthusiasm for the project, the Napthine Government has completely ignored this advice and approved the project with some untested and unhelpful changes.

The flyover at Hoddle St is now called “The Soundwave” in a rebranding seemingly stolen from the script of the ABC satire Utopia. Instead of five ramps through Royal Park west there are now seven. There is a new ground level road along the Moonee Ponds Creek and a new on ramp from Brunswick Rd.

The eastern vent stack has been located in the worst possible location, very close to the Gold St primary school. The inclusion of “vertical gardens” cladding the 30 metre stack will not make the fine particulates being emitted any less polluting. Continue Reading…