Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade Study Area Investigations and Corridors Identification November 2008
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Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade Study area investigations and corridors identification November 2008 RTA/Pub. 08.412 ISBN 9781921474873 Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade STUDY AREA INVESTIGATIONS AND CORRIDOR IDENTIFICATION November 2008 Sinclair Knight Merz ABN 37 001 024 095 100 Christie Street PO Box 164 St Leonards NSW Australia 1590 Tel: +61 2 9928 2100 Fax: +61 2 9928 2500 Web: www.skmconsulting.com COPYRIGHT: The concepts and information contained in this document are the property of the Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW. Use or copying of this document in whole or in part without the written permission of the Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW constitutes an infringement of copyright. LIMITATION: This report has been prepared on behalf of and for the exclusive use of Sinclair Knight Merz Pty Ltd’s Client, and is subject to and issued in connection with the provisions of the agreement between Sinclair Knight Merz and its Client. Sinclair Knight Merz accepts no liability or responsibility whatsoever for or in respect of any use of or reliance upon this report by any third party. Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade Study Area Investigations and Corridor Identification Contents Executive summary ix 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Project overview 1 1.2. Strategic and project need 1 1.3. The Central West transport needs and Newnes Plateau alternative corridor studies 2 1.4. Project objectives 2 1.5. The study area 6 1.6. Project development process 6 1.7. Purpose and structure of this report 9 2. Legislative framework 11 2.1. Commonwealth legislation 11 2.2. NSW legislation 11 2.2.1. Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 11 2.2.2. Other NSW legislation 11 3. Design considerations 15 3.1. Key design criteria 15 3.2. Urban design considerations 18 4. Study area considerations and constraints 21 4.1. Traffic and transport 21 4.1.1. The existing Great Western Highway 21 4.1.2. Traffic volumes in the region 22 4.1.3. Traffic volumes within the study area 23 4.2. Biodiversity 23 4.2.1. Flora 24 4.2.2. Fauna 33 4.2.3. Planning policies 41 4.3. Aboriginal heritage 41 4.3.1. Aboriginal interests 41 4.3.2. Environmental context 42 4.3.3. Archaeological context 43 4.3.4. Predictive Model 47 4.3.5. Broad constraints 48 4.3.6. Native Title Act 1993 50 4.4. Non-Aboriginal heritage 50 4.4.1. Historical background 50 4.4.2. The seven lines of road to the west 52 4.4.3. The Stockades 58 PAGE iii Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade Study Area Investigations and Corridor Identification 4.4.4. Service centres in the Hartleys 60 4.4.5. Hartley Vale as a farming community 63 4.4.6. Hartley Vale and the oil-shale industry 64 4.4.7. Heritage sites within the study area 66 4.4.8. Relevant legislation 72 4.5. Hydrology and water quality 74 4.6. Noise 75 4.7. Economic and social 75 4.7.1. Social policy framework 77 4.7.2. Population and demography 78 4.7.3. Social infrastructure 84 4.7.4. Community values 84 4.8. Land use and future development potential 87 4.9. Urban design and landscape assessment 89 4.9.1. Places of significance 89 4.9.2. Remote/populated areas 91 4.9.3. Scale of new infrastructure 93 4.9.4. Visual absorption capacity 93 4.9.5. Landscape character 96 4.9.6. Landscape features 98 4.10. Topography, geology, soils and contaminated land 100 4.11. Greenhouse gases 103 5. Stakeholder consultation 105 5.1. Approach to consultation 105 5.1.1. Objectives of the consultation program 105 5.1.2. Consultation initiatives and activities 106 5.1.3. Responding to community requests 110 5.1.4. Innovation in the engagement process 111 5.1.5. Commitments and negotiables 111 5.2. Start up and issue identification 112 5.2.1. Project introduction 112 5.2.2. Strategic review of a Newnes Plateau corridor and Central West transport needs study meeting 113 5.2.3. Constraints mapping workshops 114 5.2.4. Project information tools 115 5.2.5. Media reports 116 5.3. Community input into corridor identification 116 6. Identification of potential corridors 119 6.1. How the potential corridors were developed 119 6.1.1. Constraint mapping 119 6.1.2. Team workshop 121 6.1.3. Quantm program 122 6.1.4. Final identification and refinement of corridors 123 PAGE iv Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade Study Area Investigations and Corridor Identification 6.2. Overview of corridors 124 6.2.1. Purple corridor 124 6.2.2. Green corridor 126 6.2.3. Red corridor 126 6.2.4. Orange corridor 127 6.3. Project cost estimates 128 6.4. Ecologically Sustainable Development 128 6.4.1. Precautionary principle 128 6.4.2. Intra and inter-generational equity 128 6.4.3. Conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity 129 6.4.4. Improved valuation and pricing of environmental resources 129 7. Conclusion and way forward 131 7.1. Conclusion 131 7.2. The next steps 132 References 135 Appendix A Community update and advertisement – May 2008 Appendix B Community meetings – June 2008 Appendix C Letter to households – July 2008 Appendix D Community meetings – July 2008 Appendix E Community update and advertisement – August 2008 Appendix F Constraints workshops – August 2008 PAGE v Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade Study Area Investigations and Corridor Identification List of Tables Table 1-1 Criteria derived from project and design objectives to serve as the basis for corridor/ route development and selection Table 2-1 Summary of other legislative requirements Table 3-1 Design considerations Table 4-1 List of vegetation associations and corresponding listed communities identified in the study area Table 4-2 Occurring and potentially occurring threatened flora Table 4-3 Occurring and potentially occurring threatened fauna Table 4-4 Potential occurrence of migratory species Table 4-5 Known Aboriginal heritage sites within or adjacent to the study area Table 4-6 List of known heritage items within the study area within the Blue Mountains local government area Table 4-7 List of known heritage items within the study area within Lithgow local government area Table 4-8 Population, 2006 Table 4-9 Age and cultural diversity, 2006 Table 4-10 Population mobility, 2006 Table 4-11 Income and employment Table 4-12 Predominant industries of employment Table 4-13 Households and families, 2006 Table 4-14 Housing characteristics, 2006 Table 4-15 Vehicle ownership and travel to work, 2006 Table 5-1 Consultation activities undertaken to date Table 5-2 Stakeholder meetings and briefings Table 5-3 Project advertisements Table 5-4 Consultation events in June 2008 Table 5-5 Attendance at world cafe workshops Table 7-1 Recommended specialist studies PAGE vi Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade Study Area Investigations and Corridor Identification List of Figures Figure 1 Identified corridors Figure 1-1 Status of the Great Western Highway upgrade program Figure 1-2 Study area Figure 1-3 Approach to the project Figure 4-1 Existing traffic volumes on Blue Mountains crossings Figure 4-2 Distribution of vegetation communities and endangered ecological communities in the study area Figure 4-3 Approximate location of threatened plants recorded in the study area Figure 4-4 Approximate location of threatened fauna recorded in the study area Figure 4-5 Wildlife corridor and priority fauna habitat Figure 4-6 Predictive modelling of areas of potential archaeological significance Figure 4-7 Hartley Vale from the top of the oil-shale incline on the western edge of Darling Causeway. The industrial company village of Hartley Vale is in the left foreground. Figure 4-8 Historic trails across the western escarpment of the Blue Mountains Figure 4-9 The north face of Mount York, viewed from Hartley Vale Figure 4-10 Bells Line of Road, western end, in heavy black. Figure 4-11 Victoria Pass, buttressing on north side of the causeway. From west Figure 4-12 Location of stockades within the study area Figure 4-13 The Great Western Highway at Little Hartley, with the Kerosene Hotel on the middle left. From the north-west in 1872. Figure 4-14 Hartley Historic Site Figure 4-15 Fernhill stables, South Bowenfels Figure 4-16 Aerial view of Hartley Vale oil-shale and part of the company village, c.1930s. The Comet Inn in the two-storey building in the centre. The refinery site is in the rear left, the retorts, ash- heap and incline are in the rear right. Figure 4-17 Map of known heritage items within the study area Figure 4-18 Sensitive receivers within the study area Figure 4-19 Land use within the study area PAGE vii Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade Study Area Investigations and Corridor Identification Figure 4-20 Places of significance Figure 4-21 Remote/ populated areas Figure 4-22 Scale of new infrastructure Figure 4-23 Visual absorption capacity Figure 4-24 Landscape character Figure 4-25 Landscape features Figure 4-26 Geology within the study area Figure 4-27 Known contaminated land within the study area Figure 5-1 Consultation phases for the project Figure 6-1 Schematic summary of corridor identification methodology. Figure 6-2 Identified corridors PAGE viii Mount Victoria to Lithgow Great Western Highway Upgrade Study Area Investigations and Corridor Identification Executive summary Introduction Approach to study area investigations The Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW (RTA) has This phase has built directly on the work undertaken for engaged Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) to undertake the the Background and Proposed Project Development preliminary environmental investigations and to assist in Report (June 2008), to provide a robust basis for the the identification of a preferred route for the proposed identification of feasible corridors.