What has the Transport Minister Office have to say?
Dear Mr Wilson,
Please find attached response to your email of 29 June to the Honourable Scott Emerson MP, Minister for Transport and Main Roads.
(See attached file: MC63747_response.pdf)
Kind regards,
Joanne Bulloch
Program Support Coordinator | Business Support Services
Major Infrastructure Projects | Department of Transport and Main Roads--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Floor 20 | Brisbane City - 313 Adelaide Street | 313 Adelaide Street | Brisbane City Qld 4000
GPO Box 2439 | Brisbane City Qld 4000
P: (07) 30664102 | F: (07) 30664100
E: joanne.m.bulloch@tmr.qld.gov.au
W: www.tmr.qld.gov.au
As requested, please find attached confirmation that we have received your email.
Thank you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------From: Transport and Main Roads
Sent: Friday, 29 June 2012 1:24 PM
To: The Rivermouth Action Group Inc
Subject: RE: Department refuses meeting please send email.
Thank you for your email to the Hon. Scott Emerson MP, Minister for Transport and Main Roads. We confirm receipt of your message and advise your correspondence is receiving attention.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did the departmental response address the contents of the email sent to the Minister?
From: The Rivermouth Action Group Inc [activist@rag.org.au]
Sent: Friday, 29 June 2012 1:04 PM
To: Transport and Main Roads
Subject: Department refuses meeting please send email.
Scott Emerson MP
Minister for Transport and Main Roads
Queensland
Dear Minister
It is quite obvious to the residents of Hemmant that your Department does not under take the Duty of Care which should be provide to them.
I have over the past 12 months been raising the issue of drainage and flooding in the Bulimba Creek, Hemmant Creek, Lindum Creek and Lytton areas.
Over the past 4 decades this area of Brisbane's southside has been neglected by your department ever since the upgrade of Lytton Road and the building of the Dual Gauge rail line to the Port of Brisbane.
The excuse has always been that there was no hydrology study available and that there was no funds available to carry one out.
That excuse has now failed with the extension of the Port Road study.
Many bad mistakes were made with the upgrade of Lytton Road in the 1960s and excessive local flooding has occurred ever since which has been seriously affected by no maintenance by your department and Port of Brisbane Corporation which was under the control of your predecessors.
The time has come to atone for the MANY sins of the past.
I spoke to a Ms Sarah Haynes in your department on 21 June asking with a face to face meeting with a senior person in your department to discuss the issues which I believe are the responsibility of your department. I was told to phone her back if I was not contacted. I did so on Thursday 28 June 2012 and I was told to put my concerns in writing. Isn't it wonderful that your staff are not willing to meet with me face to face and sort out this dilemma of their own making and neglect for over 40 years. They want a paper trail to prove and expose their inactions for all to see.
Now to the matters at hand.
I contend that the box culverts beneath the rail line between Hemmant and Lindum Stations are undersized.
I base this on the 1994 EIS prepared by Maunsells for the Port Road. Further more the more recent BCC report confirms this. I have taken many photograph this section of drainage corridors under the rail line through to Aquarium Passage (Bulimba Creek) over the past 12 months. several photos attached
I have dedicated a large part of my web domain space of 5,000 megabytes to the issue of this catchment's combined drainage neglect and can be found at: http://www.rag.org.au/lytton
The web site section that deals with the reason for this email is: http://www.rag.org.au/lytton/flow.htm
The single box culvert under the rail line quoted within the BCC report is 1/2600x1450 Box Culvert and a proposes an additional 1/3000x1450 box culvert.
Yes I have contacted Queensland Rail Corporation and I am awaiting their response. This was however brought to the attention of your department 18 years ago by your own consultants. This drainage corridor was the original Creek which drained almost all of this area in question. Survey photographs exist on my web site to prove this beyond doubt. The original wooden rail bridge which stood in place when I was a child growing up allowed a free flow of flood waters.
I would at this point mention Transport Infrastructure Amendment (Rail), Act 1995, Act No. 32 of 1995, An Act about rail infrastructure and other matters
[Assented to 14 June 1995] Part of Act Works for existing railways, 71ZZY.(1) which requires:
"c) sufficient works to ensure the neighbouring land’s drainage is as good, or nearly as good, as it was before the existing railway was constructed."The web page at:http://www.rag.org.auflow.htm starts with a map of this drainage channel/original creek (realigned by industry).
This map I believe makes it obvious that there is reduced drainage caused by rail line and therefore on breach of the of the Act.
The new duplication of the Port Road has box culverts of 2/2.700x1.500 and also has the existing two lanes of the Port Road.
The water corridor then passes through a small patch of mangroves to the eastern end of Canberra Street, Hemmant. This land is state land and a small pipe culvert has been installed beneath the raised road to enable access to Queensland Transport land at the eastern end of Canberra Street.
This pipe is less that a metre in diameter I believe. This pipe is way undersized and has in the past not been maintained as can be seen from the photographs on my web site. This restriction needs immediate rectification.
The water corridor then passes between a container park and Ingham's feed mill in a concrete lined channel then passes under Lytton Road.
The maintenance of the pipe culverts under Lytton Road have been raised with the Department in late 2011 and I have an undertaking by the previous minister that they would be cleaned out before the 31 December 2011. This work has not happened as of 15 June 2012 and a photos are on the web site showing previous dates viewed.
The Brisbane City Council report at: http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/documents/building_development/planning%20scheme%20policies/atcsouthpsp.pdf.pdf
highlights that the pipe culverts under Lytton Road at this point need to be increased from 3x1500 pipe culverts to 3 x 3000x1800 box culverts.
It should be quite obvious that the culverts under the existing Rail Line are undersized compared to the Port Road box culverts and the pipe culvert beneath Canberra Street is just so far undersized and requiring immediate action.
Maintenance of Queensland Transport/Main Road's culverts in this part of Brisbane has been nonexistent over 4 decades and action must now be undertaken to address the issues I have raised in this email.
I have kept this email confined to just one drainage corridor from the southern side of the rail line at Hemmant through to Lytton Road. Most of the drainage infrastructure is under the control of the Transport Department and it your department's action or inaction in the past that cause excessive or increased flooding and flood duration to residents south of the rail line at Hemmant (and in other areas which I will not explore within this email).
If there is any way in which I can assist those responsible in understanding the contents of this email I am only too willing to meet face to face either on site or at any of your offices.
I request a formal response within 30 days to these concerns stating as to what action will be undertaken to address these issues.
Regards
Barry Wilson
Secretary
The Rivermouth Action Group Inc
P.O. Box 268
Morningside Qld 4170
activist@rag.org.au
http://www.rag.org.au29 June 2012
