In its latest letterbox drop to Woombah and Iluka communities on 30 July 2018 NSW Road and Maritime Services (RMS) has admitted that, despite a commitment to review the proposed site of the Woombah temporary asphalt plant servicing the Iluka to Devil’s Pulpit section of the Pacific Highway upgrade, it still intends to place 4,000 tons of asphalt on this site by Christmas 2018.
As if from these photographs below locals could not already tell that the plan to use the site for asphalt batching remains active - despite strong community opposition based on road safety, air quality, health and environmental concerns.
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| Photographs supplied anonymously |
This turnoff is the temporary Pacific Highway-Garrets Lane intersection created in March 2018 by NSW
Roads and Maritime Services and Pacific
Complete as the highway upgrade proceeds along a 27 kilometre stretch.
It is also the intersection now used by heavy vehicles accessing the proposed site of the temporary
asphalt batching plant.
It
is an intersection and road Pacific Complete is assuring local residents has been
designed and built in accordance with the design criteria.
As the Iluka and Woombah communities were not supplied
with a detailed traffic audit for the road design or the change to road design
which is set to occur in 2019, they have to take the consortium's word that this is so.
If the complaints by some local residents of being harried by impatient construction truck drivers as they attempt to negotiate the Pacific Highway-Garrets Lane turnoff are any indication, between now and Christmas there may be another collision there.
RMS and Pacific Complete have promised to hold information sessions with the two communities again - one version states sessions commence on 30 July 2018 and another rather obscure document states they commence on 30 August 2018.
July 30 has come and gone without that particular information session taking place.
The deadline for submissions on the temporary asphalt batching plant is 10 August 2018.
Given that deadline, either RMS and Pacific Complete are the most appalling managers of the community consultation process or they are trying to limit the ability to submit fully informed written responses by10 August.
The suspicion that National Party cronyism has played a part in the choice of site is starting to be quietly muttered under the breath as well. It seems Lower Clarence River folk have long memories.
This botched Iluka to Devil's Pulpit highway construction planning and community consultation is likely to be on the minds of quite a few Woombah and Iluka residents as they cast their votes at the NSW state election in March next year.
RMS and Pacific Complete have promised to hold information sessions with the two communities again - one version states sessions commence on 30 July 2018 and another rather obscure document states they commence on 30 August 2018.
July 30 has come and gone without that particular information session taking place.
The deadline for submissions on the temporary asphalt batching plant is 10 August 2018.
Given that deadline, either RMS and Pacific Complete are the most appalling managers of the community consultation process or they are trying to limit the ability to submit fully informed written responses by10 August.
The suspicion that National Party cronyism has played a part in the choice of site is starting to be quietly muttered under the breath as well. It seems Lower Clarence River folk have long memories.
This botched Iluka to Devil's Pulpit highway construction planning and community consultation is likely to be on the minds of quite a few Woombah and Iluka residents as they cast their votes at the NSW state election in March next year.
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