Construction Project in Australia.

Running head: CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN AUSTRALIA
CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN AUSTRALIA
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1CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN AUSTRALIA
Majorprojects.planningportal.nsw.gov.au. 2020. [online] Available at:
<https://majorprojects.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/prweb/PRRestService/mp/01/
getContent?AttachRef=SSI-4992%2120190224T150246.311%20GMT> [Accessed 25
March 2020].
As per the report, Coal mining is considered as a vital part of the economy of Hunter
Valley and the majority of this coal is transported to Port of Newcastle by rail. In order to
increase the rate of coal exports and at the same time to alleviate present as well as future
congestion on coal rail network, ARTC that is Australian Rail Track Corporation undertook
much number of projects so that it could upgrade the rail networks. One of the projects under
this was Hexham Relief Roads. This project involved construction of five different relief
roads at Hexham, NSW. The length of these train tracks are 2,000 metres to 2,539 metres.
This project intended to alleviate the existing congestion on Hunter Valley coal rail network
so that options could be made available along with capacity for the purpose of re-sequencing
of the coal trains that are heading towards Port of Newcastle. In this paper, the details of the
construction and environmental of impacts of the project has been talked off.
$163 was the budget that was fixed for the project and it was supposed to offer 100
full time jobs related to construction over a time span of 18 months. As per the Part 3, clause
14 (1) of State Environmental Planning Policy (State and Regional Development) 2011, this
project was declared as to be a State significant infrastructure. As per Part 5.1, section 115W
of the EP&A Act, Minister for Planning and Infrastructure is assigned as the authority who
could give approval for these significant infrastructures. The EIS or the Environmental
Impact Statement for this project was up for exhibition for a time span of 33 days that is 8
August 2012 to 10 September 2012. Eight submissions were received by the department and
these were from the public authorities. At the same time, 35 submissions were received from
the public in general. There were no such objections from any public authority but all of them
raised concerns regarding noise, flooding, traffic, surface water and groundwater

2CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN AUSTRALIA
management and biodiversity. 31 of the submissions made by the public were against the
project as they were concerned about the project affecting visual amenity, acoustic amenity,
biodiversity, water quality, quality of air and traffic. Thereafter, on March 2013 a (PIR) that
is Preferred Infrastructure Report was submitted and this described certain amendments that
were done to the project after the exhibition of the EIS. This report provided additional
assessment regarding to the environmental impacts that were aligned to the various issues
brought forward in the submissions as well as the amendments that has been made to the
proposal.
The majority of this project is on site that has a record of being disturbed by previous
coal washing facility. The primary environmental issues that required detailed information at
the time of project initiation are as given below:
1. Flora and Fauna- This refers to the clearing out of nearby vegetation for the building of the
project. This could have an impact on the SEPP 14 Wetlands and Hunter Estuary Wetlands
comprising RAMSAR Wetlands.
2. Hydrology- The construction site being located to the Hunter River as well as the Hexham
Swamp had a high risk of flooding.
3. Noise- The noise impacts considered the temporary noise impacts during the construction
of this project.
4. Water quality- The construction of this project could result in soil erosion, instability in the
soil as well as Acid Sulphate Soils impacting upon the nearby wetlands.