Princes Highway - Foxground + Berry Bypass

Please find attached our submission relating to some of the fauna issues associated with the project.
We have made a number of recommendations about matters that need to be addressed before the project is approved.

This submission covers aspects of the Environmental Assessment of concern to Berry Landcare. Berry Landcare requests that in addition to the attached issues, it be granted approval to submit related Environment issues up to 7th January.

Kind Regards

Please see attached

Thank you for the opportunity to make this submission. We own the property that fronts the existing highway at 374 Princes Highway Gerringong, which is just after the start of the Stage 2 Upgrade, south of Toolijooa Road.

We wish to make the following comments on the design that we have seen in RMS emails to us, as Registered Stakeholders, and from a visit to the Berry Project Office where we discussed issues with RMS and AECOM staff in attendance on 7/12/2012.

Yours faithfully,
Susan Graham and Wayne Wells.

1 - The overall route and design to us seems largely acceptable, however we base that acceptance on a trust that the route selection process operated by the then RTA was an open and fair procedure. There were events that we were witness to in the route selection process, which unfortunately reduce our trust in that process.

2 - If there are, as a result of this Environmental Assessment Process, problems relating to the route, we believe firmly that the next best option must be the initially RTA discounted Railway Track Route.

3 - In reference particularly to the existing proposed route and design and it's impact on us, and our property, we would like to refer to the attached illustration, which is taken from a screen grab of the 3D flyover, kindly provided to us by Mark Dowsing on our visit to the Berry Project Office.

Point 1) Our illustration shows our property on what will be a remnant of the highway under the proposed route and design. After the 1990's review, the RTA widened the highway here to provide an overtaking lane, and in the process removed much of the road shoulder outside our property, making our access far more dangerous. It is extremely important to us that the design of the new highway redresses this issue.

Point 2) This shows the current design plan for the Stage 1 Mt. Pleasant to Toolijooa Road Upgrade design under construction, as having that overtaking lane `painted out' to provide a protected turning lane into our property, and the same to other properties near ours. This was included in the design for Stage 1, by the then RTA in negotiation with us, because of the difficulties for us that will occur due to a shift of the current peak traffic flow tailback at Mt. Pleasant, to Toolijooa Rd., which will become the next traffic merge to single lane point, after Stage 1 is completed, and before the Foxground - Berry bypass is opened some years later. It is essential to us that this removal of that overtaking lane be in place, during Stage 2 construction for our amenity and safety.

Point 3) Under the plan there is an embankment at this point of approximately 3.4 metres as indicated on the flyover. This will significantly protect us from traffic and even construction noise. We would hope that in the final design that the cut depth at this point be maintained.

Point 4) There is an approximate separation of 50 metres between the new highway and the existing road. We would hope that in the final design that the new alignment at this point be maintained. Further we would hope that this narrow remnant strip between the two roads be used as a revegetation opportunity, with species such as existing in the forested area to the north-east of the proposed Toolijooa Ridge cut.

4 - We note that in early designs for the upgrade, there was a proposal for a wildlife `land bridge' across the Toolijooa Ridge cutting which appears to have been deleted in favour of `rope crossings' and `wildlife underpasses'. We would expect the Planning Department to thoroughly question RMS on the adequacy of these in maintaining wildlife corridors.

5 - We are alarmed that under this design some left-off, left-on accesses to private properties appear to be maintained. We have long believed that these will be unsafe at future traffic volumes, and say that the design must be changed so that these are removed in a way that vehicles from those properties access the highway at Grade Separated Interchanges, by the provision of side roads if required. We would expect the Planning Department to question the traffic volumes predicted by RMS in relation to the standard to which these accesses are built. We believe that RMS are not achieving a safe standard with this design in relation to local vehicle access.

6 - We believe that the choice to bypass Berry to the north-west was only at best a marginal decision in terms of environmental and community amenity impacts, and so would expect that in the final design everything possible be done to limit these impacts.

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