NorthConnex

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To whom this may concern,
I believe this project is a waste of money and will not alleviate the congestion on Pennant Hills road to the extent imagined by the NSW Government. In fact I believe it will cause increased congestion on the M2-M7 west and M1.
My property will be severely compromised by the proposed southern interchange adding to the fact that it will be ineffective in its achievements.
This Liberal Government shows no consideration for the constituents but will bend over for big business.
This toll road is another burden on the constituents of NSW and will deter the target truck traffic from using it. So hopefully my comments will be taken on board as the process gets steamrolled through. Regards xxx

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I note that the proposed tunnels are to be 2 lanes in both directions. Given the costs and interruption suffered in widening so many existing motor ways to 3 lanes in recent years and currently, would it not be a wise move to make the tunnels 3 lanes in either direction from the start.

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We strongly object to the use of Karloon Rd as the In Bound Heavy Vehicle Route for the construction of the North Connex tunnel. We have lived at this address for 44 years since 1970 have seen the volume of traffic rise considerably over this time.
As a residential street that provides local access to the area Karloon Rd is not suited to use as a heavy transport route. It is not reasonable to expect local residents to accept an additional 1810 heavy & light vehicle movements on a 24/7 basis over a 5 year period. Residential vehicles will need to access Karloon Rd via their driveways in unsafe conditions with no apparent traffic management in place. How will truck speeds be controlled?
An alternative Heavy Vehicle Route needs to be found that is based on direct access off Pennant Hills Rd.
Do not place an unnecessary & unreasonable burden on the local residents of Karloon Rd for the benefit of State & National based piece of infrastructure.

Please find attached a letter written in response to the recent public forum held at Hornsby RSL on 29 July 2014.

I strongly object to the proposed siting of the exhaust stack.

I am concerned about the placement of the North vent in a residential area, and the fact that it allows non-filtered and harmful pollution into the local area.

I o b j e c t to the location of the Northern stack in a residential area and the volumes of pollution that will be emitted from it. I think it should be relocated as far as possible from residential areas.
I would like u n bi a s e d information at information events regarding NorthConnex.

Dear Sir
I am writing to you as my local member to raise my serious concerns about the planned location of
the northern ventilation stack for the NorthConnex tunnel.
The planned location of this ventilation stack is in a residential area with many schools and elderly
facilities within close proximity.
My concern is that this ventilation stack will pump out huge amounts of unfiltered pollution from
nine kilometres of the northbound tunnel through a single outlet into the local community and this
will put our children and the families at risk of harm. The process seems to be extremely rushed with a very unexpected announcement on 16 March, an EIS being put together over a four month period (very short timeframe for such a large project) and an expected approval in September.
In the 2008 National Health & Medical Research Council Report (NHMRC): Air Quality in and around Tunnels, it states that "People who live near tunnels or their stacks may be at risk if the presence of the tunnel alters the ongoing quality of the neighbourhood ambient air. Risks to cardiorespiratory health may arise if there is exposure to contaminated air from road traffic emissions, including tunnel emissions. Important indicators of this risk are NO2 and particulate levels. A particular concern is the association between impaired lung development in children and emissions from traffic. Particulates and volatile compounds including benzene may produce an increased lifetime risk for cancer."

What concerns me even more is that the research conducted in the NHMRC report does not include tunnels anywhere near the length of the proposed NorthConnex 9km tunnel. The tunnel is planned to have a substantially high amount of heavy vehicles, which in turn have much higher emissions of airborne particles - approximately 75% more according to the NHMCR report.
It is also a fact that Asthma Australia has raised serious concerns around the M5 tunnel and has been critical of the design and the NSW Governments ongoing management of the health issues reported.
In summary I strongly oppose the current planned location of the NorthConnex ventilation stack for
the following reasons:
- There has been no genuine effort made by RMS, or any other sponsor of this project to
engage the community in Wahroonga/Waitara properly and this has been acknowledged by
the NorthConnex project team during their recent presentations
- The process is being rushed and this will inevitably lead to mistakes in planning and the local
community will suffer consequences of this for decades to come
- The unfiltered emissions represent a substantial and material risk to our children and the
rest of the community
- Whilst the project team say that the ventilation stacks will be designed to meet strict air
quality standards, in reality there will be no consequence to the operators if these standards
are not met but the local community will suffer considerable and life threatening health
issues - The mental health of many family members in the community will be at risk due to factors
such as lowering property values, health fears for themselves and their children, friends and
neighbours selling their houses and moving away which will disrupt the community, etc.

I urge you to reconsider your support of the current design for NorthConnex and use your position in office to push for a design that is better for the local community in Wahroonga and Waitara.
Please remember that you are paid to represent this community and that is all I am asking you to do.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Name : Douglas Meares
Address 42 Grosvenor St Wahroonga 2076
Phone Number

I expect that many of the responses to the Environmental Impact Statement for the NorthConnex proposal will be critical with most likely many responses raising issues around air quality. This is not a critical response and I am totally supportive of the current proposal.

Over past years I have had considerable involvement in the development of what is now the M1 including the EIS for the length to Wahroonga and with the Sinclair Knight Merz development of the `purple' option.

I believe that the `purple' option is the very best proposal for linking the M1 and M2.

I admire the work done by Transurban in presenting its plan and I think the EIS is comprehensive and detailed. The EIS in my view is one of the best I have seen and is certainly details a major road project with clarity.

Since the question of air quality at the exhaust stacks received extensive discussion at all the public meetings that I attended I would just remark that the issue of air quality is in no sense a zero sum game. Quite the reverse. The quality of the air for the community living along Pennant Hills Road will be substantially improved after the tunnels are completed and the design of the exhaust stacks will ensure that air quality adjacent to the exhaust stacks will be well within acceptable limits. In my view the analysis of air quality in the EIS is quite convincing and I thought the presentations to the meeting on the 29th July dealt with community concerns more than adequately.

The EIS brings out quite clearly that the first step in ensuring air quality is to ensure that `dirty' vehicles should not be in the tunnels. Vehicles entering the tunnels will be monitored but what is proposed after the monitoring to ensure that the offending vehicles are brought up to standard?

I am sure that the Department will give a thorough and independent review of the EIS. My hope and confident expectation is that it will be approved. The project will provide the final link in the national road network around Sydney and return Pennant Hills Road to the local community. It will be of major economic benefit and is long overdue.

I hope that when approval is given to the project it then progresses without delay.

J G Crowe BE MEngSci

I have concerns about my house, the tunnel, environment and lack of alternatives put forward. I have also been informed that the stack is not filtered due to the added cost of construction and operational costs.
I have uploaded files regarding my concerns, and offering other feasible suggestions. There are photos from the flora and fauna that my family and I regularly see in our back yard which will disappear and a reason why we brought the property we now call home. I have almost completed renovations to my house and am extremely happy with the current landscape of the backyard views.
The infrastructure impact will severely decreases the house value and wipe out the native flora and fauna as shown. I refuse to live in an environment as suggested; I am currently seeking evaluations on my properties current state. I have been informally advised that my property my reach in excess of $2 million for a 6 bedroom, 4 bathroom 3 car under cover garage and an extra 5 car off street parking newly renovated and rendered dwelling. I currently hold a Masters Degree in Project Management majoring in Project Risk Management from the University of Sydney and hold an Associated Diplomas in Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture and currently undertaking and Executive Master in Business at the AGSM, UNSW. I have been involved in multiple billion dollar infrastructure projects globally, holding various positions such as Projects Manager, Construction Management and Commissioning Manager for the last 15 years. I advocate you to absorb the marked up photos and drawings please and consider other alternatives.

Regards
De-Wayne Jenkins
0408572250

Dear Sir or Madam,

Hello, I would just like to point out that you had better put a damn air treatment system in the M1-M2 Northconnex Tunnel or else people will come at you from all directions with all kinds of complaints and you will risk losing your jobs.

Please listen to the concerns of those people and do not approve anything without their okay.

Regards,

xxx

Dear Sir or Madam,

Hello, I would just like to point out that you had better put a damn air treatment system in the M1-M2 Northconnex Tunnel or else people will come at you from all directions with all kinds of complaints and you will risk losing your jobs.

Please listen to the concerns of those people and do not approve anything without their okay.

Regards,

xxx

Like most residents of Pennant Hills Road, I generally support the proposal for the construction of a Tunnel to divert freights from Pennant Hills Road given the majority of properties along Pennant Hills Road are residential properties, and the noise and other amenity impacts from heavy vehicles especially during night hours are significant. However, the value of the proposal also relies on:

- Ensuring all heavy vehicles (other than those with a local destination) must use the tunnel, especially at night when light traffic conditions may not be sufficient to encourage the use of the toll route.

- Reducing speed limit on Pennant Hills Road from 70k/h to 60k/h and improvement to road reserve area to support shared pedestrian and cycle paths. This is to ensure Pennant Hills Road will be conducive to local traffic againb rather than as a national freight route.

The proposal states that no changes are proposed on Pennant Hills Road in association with the tunnel.

NorthConnex - Heavy trucks on local roads.
The proposal for heavy truck movements at the Southern interchange using local roads, (Viz. Aiken/Oakes/Eaton/Karloon), is totally unworkable.
The Problem.
* All four of these roads are a car park before 9am and after approx.4pm. but still busy within these hours,
* The width of Eaton Road is inadequate turning left from Oakes Road. It is even difficult for cars, with vehicles parked on both sides of Eaton Road.
* The roads are not built to support heavy trucks.
* The very steep gradient up Karloon Road is totally unsuited to trucks, which would need to stop/start at the steepest part due to the queue of cars waiting for the lights at Pennant Hills Road.
* Heavy trucks could not negotiate the three roundabouts on this route and would need to drive over them.
The Solution.
* Use the extra wide median strip at the Pennant Hills Road lights to form a right turn lane into Eaton Road - for construction vehicles only. There are warning lights already in place for Southbound traffic coming to these lights.
* Construct a right turn, for construction vehicles only, half way between Eaton Road and the M2 interchange. There would still be sufficient room for the right turn lane onto the M2.

NorthConnex - Ventilation Stack.
The ventilation stack at the Southern interchange should be located on the Eastern side of Pennant Hills Road. In all the NorthConnex documents it is stated that the ventilation stacks should be positioned as close as possible to the exit portal of the tunnel. There is no indication in the documents as to how the tunnel would be ventilated to the Western side of Pennant Hills Road.
Obviously this would require resumption or a lease arrangement of the required space from the Pennant Hills Golf Club. The latter is not a public facility, it is a private club and therefore no different from private dwellings.

NorthConnex - Retention Basin.
There are indications that the existing retention basin on the Northern side of the M2 behind the residences in Lisle Court, West Pennant Hills will need to be extended. Such an extension should be minimised as far as possible so that it does not encroach on the Council Reserve behind these residences and those of Savoy Court. There are at least three large Sydney Blue Gums that may be impacted if this is not achieved.
I have been carrying out Bushcare for the Council on this Reserve for over 30 years and one of the aims has been to encourage sufficient vegetation to screen the very high wall of the M2 at this point.

Sensitive vibration receivers for the construction phase have not been specifically identified in the EIS. One would expect that residential properties directly above the route of the tunnel would be impacted. Please explain why this has not been addressed in the EIS considering extensive data available on the vibrating properties of geological material.