The RTA's Treatment of Complaints about Boulder Falls

There have been extensive boulder falls from the forty metre high cliffs at the summit of the Alum Mountain since the commencement of blasting of the Karuah to Bulahdelah section of the Pacific Highway Upgrade at the village of Nerong, some 10 kilometres south of Bulahdelah.

As is the case with the mountain’s lower slopes, the summit is a heritage, research, tourism, and cultural area. It has been recorded by NSW State Forests as attracting thousands of visitors per annum and a car park, walking trails and two lookouts have been constructed for public use.

The RTA is dealing with the matter of these boulder falls in Communo-Fascist style: with blatantly preposterous lies.

In a letter dated 16th May, 2008, N.S.W. Parliamentary Secretary for Roads, Michael Daley M.P., claimed that ‘two geotechnical scientists and a geologist visited the mountain on Friday, 9th November, 2007’ and that they found ‘no evidence of the recent movement of large boulders’. The boulders, which are large chunks of rock from the mountain’s cliffs, shatter upon impact with the ground and the resultant fragments, some of which are also boulder-sized (i.e. over ten inches in diameter), discharge in all directions. They do not leave tracks along the ground. They do, however, smash and slice the trunks of trees and a section of the walking trail to the Ted Baker Lookout has been crushed. The trunk of a tree about a quarter of the way down the mountain road has been sliced in two places by boulder fragments. Further details, including photographs are at: http://pacific-highway.blogspot.com/

The Alum Mountain’s cliffs are porous. In his letter of 16th May, 2008, Michael Daley, Parliamentary Secretary for Roads, also stated that evidence of ‘minor rock falls’ had been found on Friday, 9th November, 2007 and: ‘Geotechnical staff attribute the falls to the recent rainfall over the past couple of months’. Yes, in the months prior to Michael Daley’s letter there was high rainfall - but there’s no way on this earth that rainfall which occurred in 2008 caused ‘rock falls’ in 2007. Michael Daley’s letter, however, provides written acknowledgement from the RTA that rain can cause rock falls on the Alum Mountain.

This post initially published: 20th July, 2008.

The RTA's Lie Regarding Commencement of Construction

In response to some of those who query or object to the use of ‘Option E’ for the Pacific Highway Upgrade at Bulahdelah the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) is currently claiming that construction has already commenced and that it is too late and would be too costly to divert to another option. That, as is the case with the vast majority of statements made by the RTA, is absolutely untrue.

It is pre-construction activities (‘early works’) which are taking place, not actual construction. This was admitted to the few community members who are prepared to meet with the RTA and their cohorts during current RTA-conducted meetings.

The first of said meetings was held on Wednesday, 28th May, this year (2008). The RTA’s notes of that meeting state that there was a ‘budget allocation of $15 million from the recently announced Federal Budget to continue with the early works for Bulahdelah’; also: ‘AusLink 2 commences in July, 2009 [two thousand and nine]. The RTA is hoping funding becomes available for the construction of the Bulahdelah project’.

Construction of the ‘Option E’ route at Bulahdelah has not yet commenced.

It is not too late to prevent the conglomeration of atrocities the RTA has planned for the Pacific Highway Upgrade, Bulahdelah.

It is not too late to have the Bulahdelah section of the Pacific Highway Upgrade diverted to a western route e.g. Option A which is documented by the RTA as being the safest route for road users (ref. the Value Management Workshop Report).

This post initially published: 23rd July, 2008.

The Escalating Blatancy of the RTA's Communo-Fascist Behaviour.

17th August, 2008.

The blatancy of the N.S.W. Roads and Traffic Authority’s (RTA) Communo-Fascist behaviour in Bulahdelah is escalating:-

· The relatively few community members attending RTA-conducted ‘community interest group’ meetings are expected to ask questions, not make statements.

· *Said community members have been instructed that their questions must be put in writing or telephoned to the RTA prior to meetings and threatened that, if they are not, they won’t be responded to.

· If recorded in RTA meeting ‘notes’ (the RTA does not take minutes of meetings) issues raised by meeting attendees via statements are rephrased, making citizens who have spoken out against life-threatening aspects of the RTA’s intended route appear to be quislings working in collaboration with the RTA.

· Having failed to adequately/honestly reply to issues previously raised, the RTA cancelled the July ‘community interest group’ meeting on the grounds that no questions had been submitted.

*In item no. 6 of the RTA’s notes of ‘community interest group’ meeting no. 2 (25th June, 2008) the RTA has printed the following instruction:-

Note: Items for discussion at next meetings [sic] to be raised at least two weeks prior to the meeting. Phone 1800 688 153 or email.

The Deadly Hazards of the Acid Sulphate Rock Dust the RTA Intends to Inflict on Human Lives and the Myall River and Lakes

NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) bureaucrats are currently conducting what are meant to be monthly meetings with approximately twenty (a relative few) community members who have taken upon themselves the huge responsibility of acting for community interests. Of the non-RTA meeting attendees:

• only two are knowledgeable as to the details of the RTA’s processing of the Option E route; and
  

• only about three (including the abovementioned two) have taken the time to educate themselves regarding any of the life-jeopardising hazards to which the RTA intends to unnecessarily expose Bulahdelah residents, visitors to the township – including children who travel from other areas to Bulahdelah’s mass schooling institutions – and road users.

And those three or so individuals have not only the RTA and their Communo-Fascist tactics to contend with: some of their fellow meeting attendees are so naïve that, through their silence/their outspokenness regarding irrelevant matters, they are unwittingly supporting the RTA objective to endanger human lives – including the lives of children.

At this year’s meetings, RTA bureaucrats continue to play down, including, in some cases, by lying about, hazards involved in the use of Option E. These include the dangers of acid-sulphate dust which would be produced during construction. Facts additional to those at the Pacific Highway - NSW Government's Killer Act blogspot site are:-

In the Alum Mountain section of the ‘Option E’ proposal, there are ‘locally high concentrations of acid sulphate rock’ and that rock is ‘acid forming’. (Ref. Geotechnical Investigation for Route Selection: PPK – now Parsons Brinkerhoff – 2001)

The acid produced by the rock described by the RTA as ‘acid sulphate rock’ is sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is carcinogenic. Inhalation of sulphuric-acid-producing rock dust can also cause aluminosis.

Dust produced during the removal (including via blasting) of a gargantuan section of the western foot of the Alum Mountain would be acid sulphate. The acid sulphate constituents of the dust would be from: acid sulphate soils, acid sulphate clays and at least two types of acid sulphate rock: rhyolite and alum stone (alunite).

Route-processing tactics employed by the RTA include avoidance and misrepresentation of the actual concerns of citizens. The following is but one of many examples which can be found in the RTA’s own documentation:-

‘Dust would be generated during construction of the proposal, especially during earthworks. The total amount of dust generated during the construction of the proposed Upgrade would depend on the silt and moisture content in the soil and types of operations being carried out’. (Ref. Bulahdelah Upgrade of The [sic] Pacific Highway Submissions Report 2.4 Environmental Impacts of the Proposal 2.4.7 Air Quality.)

The ‘total amount of dust generated during construction’ is irrelevant to the fact that, in addition to other dust-related health issues e.g. asthma, dust which contains a fluid-triggered carcinogen and can cause aluminosis would be generated during construction of the proposal and would be ingested, including via inhalation, by community members.

From the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) document Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): Volume 6 Technical Paper 11, page 4-33:-

NOTE: THE WORDS POTENTIAL AND POTENTIALLY WERE USED IN THE EIS AS A MEANS OF UNDERPLAYING ACTUAL HAZARDS.

4.9 Acid Sulphate Rock [bold typeface added for emphasis]

During the Geotechnical Investigation for Route Selection (PPK 2001) rock samples were tested for acid producing potential. The test results indicated a range from nonacid to potentially strongly acid producing rock. Samples indicated moderate and strong acid producing potential on the lower slopes of Bulahdelah ([the] Alum) Mountain north of Ann Street/Bombah Point Road, from the Bulahdelah Formation geological unit through which the preferred route would be cut.

A sample from the colluvial area [a landslide area claimed by the RTA to be ‘ancient’ – located above residences and Bulahdelah Central School] was also designated as potentially acid forming. It is likely that mixing resulting from the excavation, haul and placing would reduce the risk of fill containing locally high concentrations of acid sulphate rock.

Note: As is the case with already extracted alum, when it is immersed in water the alum content of alum stone hydrolyses and forms sulphuric acid. The up to twenty four metres deep ‘cut’ into the Alum Mountain for the six-lanes-plus width Option E would include the area on the northern side of the bridge. Sulphuric acid is toxic to marine life. The RTA’s response to the fact that the alum stone dust produced during excavation would be carcinogenic and could also cause aluminosis in humans was that the dust would be ‘wet down’. Wetting alum stone dust produces both alum and sulphuric acid.

This post initially published: 23rd July, 2008.

The RTA's Lies about Access to the Alum Mountain

Currently, most people access the summit of the Alum Mountain by private vehicle (using the road – not ‘track’ which leads to the upper car park). Despite their numerous claims to the contrary (including in a joint *media release by Eric Roozendaal and Jim Lloyd), the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) does not intend to maintain access to the Alum Mountain – they plan to decimate the highest usage area on the mountain’s foot and sever customary access to its summit.

*The abovementioned joint media release is of RTA propaganda and does not reflect the true situation. It is available at: http://www.minister.infrastructure.gov.au/jl/releases/2006/May/l50_2006.htm
or: http://www.ministers.dotars.gov.au/jl/releases/2006/May/L50_2006.htm.

From the Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Main Volume Page 5.19 [bold typeface and statements in square brackets added for emphasis/information]:-

'Mountain Access Overbridge

A single-span overbridge, totalling approximately 60 metres in length, is proposed at Station 96650 to replace the existing section of the Bulahdelah ([the] Alum) Mountain access track [actually an unsealed roadway] which would be cut by the Upgrade [should the ‘Option E’ route be used]. The overbridge would closely match the existing access track alignment. …

…

The bridge would have a 4-metre-wide deck and an internal clearance of 4.3 metres to the truss structure. It would primarily be used by pedestrians, but it could accommodate the passage of State Forest and emergency vehicles. Throw-over protective screens would be incorporated into the design.'

At the first of their RTA-conducted meetings this year (2008) the relatively few Bulahdelah community members who are prepared to meet with RTA bureaucrats were told that the (‘Option E’) route the RTA intends to use would not prevent private vehicles from accessing the upper reaches of the mountain. RTA meeting ‘notes’ show that – again – the RTA lied to community members, with the ‘notes’ stating that access to the mountain’s summit would only be for emergency vehicles.

This post initially published: 22nd July, 2008.