Relief Line looms over locals

By Alex Giblin

Community group REDWatch is concerned what effect construction of Transport NSW’s City Relief Line could have on the heritage CarriageWorks and Paint Shop buildings at North Eveleigh.

The plan for the five-kilometre rail link between Eveleigh and Wynyard had originally required the resumption of houses on Newtown’s Leamington Avenue, but Transport NSW have abandoned that plan and now intend to build the entrance, or “dive”, for the tunnel at North Eveleigh.

On August 29, Transport NSW informed residents that its plan to resume houses on Leamington Avenue would not go ahead, following a protest on Saturday 14 August which was attended by hundreds of locals.

“Design work was urgently undertaken by Transport NSW which has established there is no engineering or design basis for acquiring any of these properties,” the NSW Minister for Transport, John Robertson, said.

Mr Robertson said Transport NSW will carryout “further alignment investigations” at North Eveleigh for the underground line, undertaking design, engineering, survey and geo-technical drilling work in the area to see if the location is suitable.

Transport NSW expects these further studies will take several months.

Geoff Turnbull, a spokesperson for the REDWatch community group, said the group does not oppose construction of the dive at North Eveleigh and that “it clearly is better that they actually use the North Eveleigh site rather than pull down all the houses in Leamington Avenue,” but wants the government to clarify its plans.

“We want assurances … it’s not going to impact upon the fabric of that heritage building,” he said.

Mr Turnbull said REDWatch was concerned how close to the buildings construction will take place.

“These buildings were put out a very long time ago and they’ve got some quite distinctive structures underneath them in terms of everything from drainage through to the way in which they’re supported.

“And when you go and you dig a great big hole around that and you’ve got vibrations … then potentially you end up in a situation where there could be damage to the building.”

Details of the plan are not yet known. Transport NSW has said that the studies which will take place over the coming months supersede all previous studies, and that past studies will be regarded as background reference material.