BORR Southern Section EPA Updated Referral Spprtng Doc Rev2
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Bunbury Outer Ring Road Southern Section Updated Environmental Referral Supporting Document and Additional Information BORR-02-RP-EN-0014 Rev 2 October 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Bunbury Outer Ring Road (BORR) is a planned Controlled Access Highway linking the Forrest Highway and Bussell Highway. BORR will be a high standard route for access to the Bunbury Port and facilitate proposed development to the east of the City of Bunbury. BORR provides an effective bypass of Bunbury for inter-regional traffic. The BORR Project comprises three sections: • ‘BORR Northern Section’ – Forrest Highway to Boyanup-Picton Road. • ‘BORR Central Section’ – Boyanup-Picton Road to South Western Highway, an existing four kilometre (km) section which was completed in May 2013, along with a three km extension of Willinge Drive southwards to South Western Highway. • ‘BORR Southern Section’ – South Western Highway (near Bunbury Airport) to Bussell Highway. The Commissioner of Main Roads Western Australia (Main Roads) is proposing to construct and operate the southern section of the BORR Project. Main Roads is referring the BORR Southern Section (the Proposal) to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for a decision on assessment under Section 38 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act). The purpose of this document is to provide information to support the decision on assessment of the Proposal. The Proposal includes the construction and operation of 10.5 km of freeway standard, dual carriageway southwest of South Western Highway (south of Bunbury Airport) to Bussell Highway and a 3 km regional distributor from Bussell Highway at Centenary Road southeast to a grade separated interchange at the western end of Lilydale Road. The Proposal includes associated bridges, interchanges, local road modifications and other infrastructure including, but not limited to, drainage basins, drains, culverts, lighting, noise barriers, fencing, landscaping, road safety barriers and signs. The area being assessed by Main Roads covers approximately 200 hectares (ha) and is referred to as the Proposal Area. The Proposal Area connects the Northern and Central sections of the BORR (from Forrest Highway) to Bussell Highway. The Proposal is located 160-168 km south of Perth, mainly within the Shire of Capel including the localities of Gelorup, North Boyanup and Statham with some overlap into neighbouring localities (College Grove, Usher and Dalyellup). A small part of the Proposal occurs in the City of Bunbury. The northern eastern end of the Proposal will join with the southwest end of the BORR Central section, southwest of South Western Highway, approximately 8 km southeast of Bunbury Central Business District (CBD). The northwest end of the Proposal (regional distributor) at Bussell Highway is approximately 7 km south of Bunbury and the southernmost point of the Proposal Area (on Bussell Highway adjacent Capel Golf Course), is approximately 15 km south of Bunbury CBD. Approximately 62 % of land within the Proposal Area is cleared for agriculture. The Proposal Area comprises 76 ha of native vegetation and 124 ha of cleared agricultural land. Construction of the Proposal is anticipated to commence in quarter four 2021 and continue for a period of 2-3 years. In September 2019, Main Roads referred the Proposal to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for assessment under Section 38 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) (EP Act). The Proposal information submitted included an Environmental Referral Supporting Document (BORR IPT, 2019d) which described the Proposal, the local environmental values present, the potential environmental impacts of the Proposal, and the management and mitigation strategies to address the identified impacts. The s38 referral assessed potential impacts to Environmental Factors within the then 300 ha Proposal Area. In October 2019, the EPA determined that the Proposal would be subject to an environmental assessment under the EP Act at the level of ‘Referral Information’. Following referral of the Proposal to the EPA in September 2019, Main Roads substantially revised the Proposal design and infrastructure components with the objective to reduce the potential impacts to key environmental values. This resulted in a reduction in the Proposal Area by almost one third (100 ha), from 7 October 2020 Updated Environmental Referral Supporting Document and Additional Information | Rev 2 Page i 300 ha to 200 ha, with a corresponding reduction in the area needing to be cleared from 98 ha to 76 ha, and reduction in impacts to Environmental Factors, as detailed in Section 2.5, Design and Refinement. In March 2020, Main Roads (2020) submitted an application to the EPA under s43A of the EP Act to amend the Proposal in light of the design improvements. On 28 April 2020, the EPA (2020b) granted its consent to Main Roads to amend the Proposal. This document is a revision of the original referral document (BORR IPT, 2019d). It provides updated information and an assessment of the environmental impact of the Proposal, as amended, against all relevant Environmental Factors: Terrestrial Fauna, Flora and Vegetation, Terrestrial Environmental Quality, Inland Waters, Air Quality, Social Surroundings and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. As well as updated information for all relevant Environmental factors, the following additional information was specifically requested by the EPA: • Consideration of Alternative Alignments – Outline the consideration of alternative alignments in accordance with relevant objectives for the EPA’s ‘Environmental Factors’ of ‘Flora and Vegetation’, ‘Terrestrial Fauna’, ‘Inland Waters’ and ‘Social Surroundings’. • Impact to Flora and Vegetation, and Terrestrial Fauna – Undertake additional environmental surveys for ‘Threatened’ and ‘Priority’ ecological communities (TECs and PECs respectively) and species, update the assessment of the impacts to the environmental values recorded, and identify the requirements for an Environmental Management Plan (EMP). • Environmental Management Plan – Submit an EMP for TECs and PECs and species to manage, monitor and mitigate the environmental impacts of the Proposal. • Social Surroundings – Provide additional information on the impacts of noise, and landscape and visual impacts, and outline proposed mitigation measures to avoid, minimise and mitigate any impact to the amenity of the community, as well as Aboriginal heritage issues. • Offset Strategy – Outline any significant residual environmental impacts and propose an Offset Strategy in accordance with relevant guidance. • Spatial Data – Provide revised spatial data for the additional environmental surveys. Since the referral of the Proposal in September 2019, the EPA has released an Environmental Factor Guideline for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions in April 2020. Based on the assessment in Section 4.8, Greenhouse Gas Emissions are not considered a Key Environmental Factor for the Proposal. However, for completeness, an assessment of GHG emissions for the Proposal in accordance with the Guidance is included in this document. This Report has been prepared to address the additional information request and inform assessment of the Proposal. The additional information is presented complementary to the previously submitted Environmental Referral Supporting Document (BORR IPT, 2019d). The title of this document reflects the inclusion of both updated and additional information to address the additional information request. Alignment Selection The Southern Section of the BORR alignment has undergone a number of previous reviews including by Halpern Glick Maunsell (1995) and ERM Mitchell McCotter (1997). The alignment is reserved in Greater Bunbury Region Scheme (GBRS), which came into effect in 2007, following a public review period. In May 2018, the Commonwealth elevated the conservation status of the Western Ringtail Possum (WRP) from ‘Vulnerable’ to ‘Critically Endangered’. This change raised concerns regarding the alignment of the Southern section and a review was subsequently undertaken to confirm the most appropriate and sustainable alignment. In 2018 the BORR IPT further considered alternative alignment options (as outlined within the Bunbury Outer Ring Road Southern Section Alignment Selection Report (BORR IPT, 2019b) (and selected a preferred alignment (the Proposal) as described within this document. The 2019 alignment selection process was undertaken using a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) approach to consider the impact of alternative alignments for the BORR Southern section on environmental values, 7 October 2020 Updated Environmental Referral Supporting Document and Additional Information | Rev 2 Page ii social values, heritage values, land use planning, engineering constraints, and potential impacts on agricultural businesses, raw materials and mining tenements. The alignment selection process sought to minimise the potential environmental and social impacts, while also achieving the broader Proposal objectives to establish a high standard route for inter-regional traffic and improve access for freight transport destined for the Port of Bunbury. The alignment selection process concluded that: • For the South Western Highway (South) to Hasties Road section of the BORR Southern Section, the alignment identified in the Greater Bunbury Region Scheme (GBRS Alignment) is considered appropriate. • For the Hasties Road to Bussell Highway section of the BORR Southern Section, an Alternative Alignment option was identified through an MCA process