Written by Alan Kerlin Tuesday, 19 January 2010 10:13
The ALP is telling the ACT Assembly - and Harrison residents - to 'go jump' over the potential realignment of Well Station Drive where it is to join Horse Park Drive.
Residents at the south-eastern section of Harrison, in the Well Station development, have been lobbying for a year to have the eastern end of the planned road realigned to skirt around to the east of a small hill rather than to the west of it, as in the original plans.
The current alignment would put what is planned to be a four-lane road carrying 20,000 cars per day just 20 metres away from a residential street. At the junction with Horse Park Drive, the existing noise abatement embankment would be breached, allowing extensive road noise from Horse Park Drive into that entire end of Harrison. And the four metre difference in elevation between the two roads would require significant fill, creating a massive wall in front of the houses - even before adding in additional height to provide effective noise buffering.
The realignment residents are seeking would take a more direct route. It would use the hill to provide a natural noise and view buffer for the residents of Carpentaria Street, and for people in many other homes behind them who will be adversely affected by increased noise from the road. Where the two roads would meet, there is much less difference in elevation, off-setting some of the filling required by this route being close to an existing ephemeral creek.
In November last year, the residents had a win, with the ACT Assembly voting to request the Planning Minister Andrew Barr to realign the road to the east of the hill.
But now Andrew Barr and his ALP colleagues are telling us and the Assembly 'nope - we're not going to do it'.
The original cost estimate for the entire road - some two kilometres long - was $7 million. Minister Barr is now saying this realignment of some 500 metres of it would add another $5 million to the cost!
When contacted by Andrew Barr's office to explain the refusal, I expressed surprise that a revised route that was actually shorter could end up costing more. I said it was my experience that it is common for bureaucrats who don't wish to change a project to provide 'back of an envelope' calculations based on shallow information. If the community were to be expected to accept the refusal, it would require some substantiation of the cost estimate. The Minister's office told me they had no intention of making ACTPLA do the work that would be required to furnish substantiation of the cost increase. I expressed surprise that there would be any such work required if they had already done a proper and comprehensive calculation, and it would only require provision of the information that surely ACTPLA had already furnished the minister in giving that advice?
Eventually the Minister's office agreed to provide some level of substantiation. That was in the first week of this year, and to date we have still received nothing.
Andrew Barr's office also explained to me that "we have no sense of any political will to pursue this issue". This is a woeful attitude that indicates the ALP believes only the 'squeaky wheels' warrant attention. For some years, GCC has preferred to deal direct with the ACT ministers on key issues rather than via 'duel by media'. Is Minister Barr now telling us this will no longer work for him, and he is no longer interested in resolving concerns that he doesn't think will hurt him at election time??
Andrew Barr and the ALP haven't even had the decency to tell the Assembly direct, leaving it to us and the media to relay.
At the very least, Andrew Barr should be explaining his decision to the Assembly, and providing a fully costed explanation as to why. The way Minister Barr has handled this matter shows blatant disdain towards the ACT Assembly, whom are the people we voted into office. Such a stance is thumbing their nose at the will of the Assembly, makes a mockery of the electorate's decision to peg back the power of the previous majority ALP government, and clearly shows that the ACT ALP has not yet comprehended the meaning of "minority" - that it requires abandonment of the adversarial approach in favour of working together. And that it is just one step away from "opposition".
GCC wish to give credit to Caroline le Couteur from the ACT Greens and Alistair Coe from the ACT Liberals, who have both been pursuing this matter on behalf of Harrison residents. We trust they and their parties will continue to prosecute the ACT ALP and Minister Barr for the disdain they have shown towards us all.
Map of current and realigned roads:
Map of entire road extension:
There will be another $1 million added to the cost of the road to build a full signalised intersection to Horse Park Drive right from the start. This is a positive outcome to the concerns we raised about it already being hard to get out of Well Station in the morning, and that the proposed Give Way intersection would be dysfunctional and dangerous. We appreciate the Planning Minister paying heed to at least these concerns.
(Declaration: GCC president Alan Kerlin lives in Wells Station a little way from the road in question.)
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