Page 112 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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MR COE (Ginninderra) (5.17): I rise this afternoon to speak on the matter of public importance raised by the leader of the Canberra Liberals, Zed Seselja. The people of Gungahlin are consistently treated shabbily by this government. In this instance it is not only the people of Harrison that are hard done by but in fact all the people who use the Well Station Drive extension.
This issue compounds the follies of this government when it comes to Gungahlin, whether it be the Gungahlin Drive extension, the pool, public transport, sporting facilities, the missing Gungahlin shopfront, the lack of presence of a government department and more. The people of Gungahlin deserve better.
In November last year the Assembly passed a motion I moved which called on the ACT government to realign the Well Station Road extension to the east of a small hill opposite Carpentaria Street. The Assembly passed this motion because of the significant concern expressed by residents of Harrison and the Gungahlin Community Council.
The current alignment will put 20,000 cars per day just 20 metres from a residential street. It would also mean an arterial road would not follow the boundary of a suburb, as they usually do, but divide parts of the suburb. The intersection of this alignment is also more dangerous than the one in the realignment. It would be a tragedy if there were accidents at this intersection that could have been avoided had a safer alignment or eastern alignment been adopted.
The proposed realignment would address significant issues for the community. It would reduce the noise for residents and ensure that their quality of life is maintained. The extension would also mean that Well Station Road had a safer intersection with Horse Park Drive.
The state of play was described by Alan Kerlin of the Gungahlin Community Council in an email to all MLAs on 7 February, just a couple of days ago. He said:
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 to 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. We are assured that effective noise buffering would be provided, but to achieve this would require at least another metre added to an already major embankment. We are yet to see plans as to how this can be achieved.
He went on to say:
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.
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