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- 5 September 2006
Lane Cove Tunnel
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Page: 1420
Mr ANTHONY ROBERTS (Lane Cove) [6.07 p.m.]: Tonight I place the facts on the record with respect to the Lane Cove Tunnel. In doing so I pay tribute to the Lane Cove Tunnel Action Group, particularly Dr Kearney; the Mayor of Lane Cove, Ian Longbottom; and not least John Lee, and Peter Brown of Lane Cove Council. On 17 March 2000 council wrote to the Roads and Traffic Authority [RTA] supporting a three-lane tunnel in each direction and two through lanes in each direction on Epping Road. The RTA's 1999 feasibility study for the Lane Cove Tunnel was based on a $2 toll and two lanes each way to carry by 2016 an estimated 58,456 vehicles per day annual average daily traffic [AADT], which is made up of total traffic per year divided by 365.
Eighteen months later the RTA's environmental impact statement predicted that the tunnel would carry 119,905 vehicles per day AADT by 2016. Less than four years later the RTA signed its contract in December 2003 based on the tunnel carrying 159,500 vehicles per day AADT and 172,300 vehicles per day on an average weekday by 2016. Lane Cove Council was refused access to these traffic volumes because the RTA contract provisions ensured secrecy. Therefore, council was not aware until the contract was tabled in Parliament in November 2005. The contract documents show that the RTA's 2037 traffic projections would be reached eastbound in 2009 and westbound in 2011. The RTA's hourly projection for the M2 with the Lane Cove Tunnel by 2016 was 2,589 vehicles per hour. In 2002 it had already reached 2,620 vehicles per hour without the tunnel and the M7 link.
Lane Cove council exposed that the eastbound tunnel would need to operate at maximum capacity for 16 hours a day between 5.00 a.m. and 9.00 p.m. on weekdays and the Pacific Highway ramps westbound between 6.00 a.m. and 11.00 p.m. at near capacity. Had council or the community known that this would be the case they would have strenuously opposed the current arrangement. I must put on the record that Lane Cove council exposed that to achieve the projected traffic in the tunnel, traffic on the Gore Hill Freeway and M2-Epping Road would need to more than double current volumes.
Lane Cove council and the community have not changed their views that three lanes are required in both directions in the tunnel and two lanes on Epping Road. The council has reviewed its position in the light of much higher traffic volumes in the RTA contract than predicted in the EIS. Once again we have secrecy, rubbery figures and a lack of planning by the RTA, which has caused the community to review its position. I put these questions to the Minister:
(1) What are the Roads and Traffic [RTA] estimated projections of heavy vehicle movements through the Lane Cove Tunnel eastbound and westbound for the period 2007 to 2037 inclusive?
(2) What has the RTA based these projections on?
(3) How many of these movements will be by heavy duty diesel vehicles?
In his response the Minister referred me to the environmental impact statement prepared for the Lane Cove Tunnel project. I referred back to the EIS prepared for the Lane Cove Tunnel project but I cannot find any details for 2007 to 2037, other than 2016. Again, the Minister needs to answer a number of questions for the community. The Minister needs to further explain why the contract was entered into with heavy vehicle volumes much lower than the RTA's EIS projections. He needs to explain why Connector Motorways expects twice as many trucks on Longueville Road through the Lane Cove shopping centre than on Epping Road east of Mowbray Road. He needs to explain to the community why Connector Motorways misled the Air Quality Community Consultative Committee in its report in May 2006 when it claimed that traffic would be 34 per cent less on the Gore Hill Freeway after the tunnel opened in 2006, which is a reduction in traffic of 68,000 vehicles per day, with data manipulated to exclude traffic to and from the Lane Cove Tunnel and with double counting of traffic leaving the Gore Hill Freeway to Reserve Road ramps. He needs to explain whether such misleading information has been used in any public hearings.
The Minister needs to confirm that the increase in traffic on the Gore Hill Freeway east of the eastern portals will be at least 60,000 in 2006-07 and 110,000 by 2016 or advise what increase in car and truck traffic is required on the Gore Hill Freeway east of the eastern portals to achieve Connector Motorways' weekday traffic projections for 2006 and 2016. My community is facing a disaster. Most people who use this transport corridor will find that they are paying a toll to sit in what will effectively be a car park. Once again, on behalf of my community I raise concerns about the RTA and what it has done with respect to the contractual arrangements, its figures and its lack of planning.
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