Hit the road, locals tell east-west plan

Date
    July 21, 2013


Local residents opposed to the building of the east-west road project have vowed to chain themselves to construction machinery and to engage in protests and picket lines.      :o

At a packed meeting in Collingwood on Saturday the air was thick with talk of revolt, with local Socialist Party councillor Steve Jolly even describing the project as a ''Berlin Wall'' that would divide the north and south of the City of Yarra.      :(

''We will chain ourselves to whatever equipment we need to,'' he said.

He called on residents to reject government compensation to buy out their houses as the project could be stopped. ''We want [local resident] 'Chopper' Read and everyone else to stay in this area.''


The meeting of about 200 people, forced into a local health centre by heavy rain, was no place for Liberal Party supporters with speakers from the Greens, Labor and Socialist Party seeking to outdo each other on what a calamity the project was.

Most spoke of how the $6 billion to $8 billion the road would cost could be better spent on rail. Greens federal MP Adam Bandt attacked it as a ''complete waste of money. This will be the next desal project if this goes ahead,'' he said. ''I don't want Melbourne to become Los Angeles.''      ;)

Local Labor MP Richard Wynne said he was opposed to the project and that Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews had called it a ''hoax''.

''We will never support this,'' Mr Wynne said. He promised the party would have more to say on the issue soon.

Among residents there was obvious anger, too, with applause and cheers at attacks on the project and at the ''outrageous'' way residents had been informed of offers for their houses. Reports in The Saturday Age that taxpayers would take on much of the risk for the project were also cited as further evidence of how flawed it all was.

Cr Jolly said he wanted 1000 people to sign a petition distributed and signed at the meeting that vowed ''determined direct action''.      :)

Another ''emergency rally'' is planned for the other end of the proposed project in Parkville on Sunday at 11am.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/hit-the-road-locals-tell-eastwest-plan-20130720-2qb8v.html#ixzz2Zchqla3H

tell them to get a life....if they want your land they will take it.

Quote:

Local Labor MP Richard Wynne said he was opposed to the project and that Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews had called it a ''hoax''

As most of the 40,000 cars hitting Hoddle Street at the morning peak want to get into the city, there will need to be exit ramps into Collingwood, Fitzroy and Carlton — which will cause inner-city gridlock.

The first inquiry into the east-west tunnel proposal for the Bracks government, in 2004, accepted the evidence of academic transport planner Paul Mees, who said that most of the traffic coming off the freeway went into central Melbourne and only 15 per cent went to the northern or western suburbs.

In other words, the public justification for the east-west link — that it would take traffic away from the central business district — was a confidence trick.

The 2004 study concluded that the need for extra road capacity was ''questionable'' and the ''road tunnel options investigated are not considered justifiable, mainly because the economic benefits do not cover the high cost, and the social and environmental impacts are mixed''.

The standard measure of ''benefits'' traditionally used by the Commonwealth until the establishment of Infrastructure Australia was limited to travel time and vehicle operating costs saved, reduced crash costs, reduced pollution, and revenues from tolls or fares. On this basis the benefit-cost ratio came down to 0.7, compared with 1.4 as calculated with the Eddington extras.

This means, according to a standard calculation, that every dollar spent on the three projects would yield a return of 70¢, compared to $1.40 according to Eddington. For the east-west link alone – which has now become a Baillieu government priority — the benefit-cost ratio is 0.5, according to the traditional measure, and 0.7, according to Eddington.

The so-called ''benefit'' of the road tunnel is removal of congestion at Hoddle Street. But this would be more than offset by gridlock in the city centre — and it would destroy the amenity of the inner suburbs and the CBD, which is built on public transport, cycling and walking.

Why spend $10 billion or thereabouts to get a return of $5 billion and create a living hell, when $1 billion to create a Doncaster rail link approaching the city down the middle of the Eastern Freeway could relieve the Hoddle Street pressure and enhance the liveability of the city?


http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/why-the-eastwest-road-tunnel-is-a-stinker-20111127-1o19f.html#ixzz2ZdAk7qcH