WILPINJONG COAL PROJECT APPENDIX K Road Transport Assessment Wilpinjong Coal Project APPENDIX K WILPINJONG COAL PROJECT ROAD TRANSPORT ASSESSMENT PREPARED BY TRAFFIX April 2005 REF: TRAFFIX V10 Level 2, 55 Mountain Street Broadway NSW 2007 PO Box 697 Broadway NSW 2007 PH (02) 9211 3352 FAX (02) 9211 2740 E-MAIL [email protected] ACN 065 132 961 ABN 66 065 132 961 Wilpinjong Coal Project TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Page K1 INTRODUCTION K-1 K1.1 REGIONAL LOCATION AND PROJECT SITE K-1 K2 EXISTING TRAFFIC CONDITIONS K-5 K2.1 ROAD HIERARCHY K-5 K2.2 ROAD CONDITIONS K-6 K2.3 REVIEW OF TRAFFIC VOLUMES K-7 K2.4 PEAK PERIOD INTERSECTION OPERATION K-8 K2.5 TRAFFIC SAFETY K-9 K2.6 CUMULATIVE TRAFFIC POTENTIAL K-11 K3 DESCRIPTION OF THE DEVELOPMENT K-12 K4 TRAFFIC GENERATION DURING MINE CONSTRUCTION K-13 K4.1 OVERVIEW K-13 K4.2 POTENTIAL IMPACTS ON DAILY TRAFFIC VOLUMES K-14 K4.3 OVERSIZE TRAFFIC K-18 K4.4 PEAK PERIOD INTERSECTION OPERATION K-18 K5 TRAFFIC GENERATION DURING MINE OPERATIONS K-20 K5.1 OVERVIEW K-20 K5.2 POTENTIAL IMPACTS ON DAILY TRAFFIC VOLUMES K-21 K5.3 PEAK PERIOD TRAFFIC DURING MINE OPERATION K-25 K6 OTHER TRAFFIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE PROJECT K-26 K6.1 MINE ACCESS ROAD K-26 K6.2 CONSTRUCTION PHASE - TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION CAMP AND PROJECT ACCESS ON ULAN-WOLLAR ROAD K-27 K6.3 CLOSURE OF WILPINJONG ROAD AND BUNGULLA ROAD K-27 K6.4 DIVERSION OF ULAN-WOLLAR ROAD K-27 K6.5 BLASTING K-27 K6.6 ROAD SAFETY K-28 K6.7 POTENTIAL CUMULATIVE IMPACTS K-28 K7 RECOMMENDED TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT MEASURES K-29 K8 CONCLUSIONS K-30 K9 REFERENCES K-31 TRAFFIX K-i Road Transport Assessment Wilpinjong Coal Project LIST OF TABLES Table K-1 Annual Average Daily Traffic Flows Table K-2 Level of Service Criteria Table K-3 Existing Intersection Performances – Peak Hours Table K-4 Summary of RTA Accident Data Table K-5 Project Traffic Distribution – Construction Phase Table K-6 Potential Impact of Project Construction Phase on Existing Traffic Flows Table K-7 Future Intersection Performances During Construction – Peak Hours Table K-8 Project Operation Workforce Table K-9 Project Traffic Distribution – Operational Phase Table K-10 Potential Impact of Project Operational Phase on Existing Traffic Flows Table K-11 Future Intersection Performances During Operation – Peak Hours LIST OF FIGURES Figure K-1 Regional Location Figure K-2 Project General Arrangement Figure K-3 Road Hierarchy and Traffic Count Stations Figure K-4 Existing Peak Period Intersection Volumes LIST OF ATTACHMENTS Attachment K-A Photographic Record of the Main Access Route via Wollar Road Attachment K-B Surveyed Traffic Count Data Attachment K-C Guideline Extracts Relevant to Intersection Design TRAFFIX K-ii Road Transport Assessment Wilpinjong Coal Project K1 INTRODUCTION The Wilpinjong Coal Project (the Project) is located approximately 40 kilometres (km) north-east of Mudgee in New South Wales (NSW) (Figures K-1 and K-2). The Wilpinjong coal resource is located in the Ulan-Bylong area in the northern sector of the Western Coalfield. The Project is located in the Mid-Western Regional local government area (Figure K-3). The Mid-Western Regional local government area was proclaimed by the NSW government in May 2004 and comprises the whole of the former Mudgee Shire, as well as part of the former Rylstone and Merriwa Shires. Construction activities would be undertaken during Year 1 of the Project. The majority of construction activities would be completed in the first 6 months of Year 1. An on-site temporary construction camp would accommodate up to 100 people during the construction phase. The mining operation would involve the extraction of coal using open cut mining methods over the 21 year life of the Project with an annual production of up to 13 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of run-of-mine (ROM) coal. The Project would operate 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Product coal would be conveyed to a train load-out bin above the Project rail loop located within the Mining Lease Application (MLA 1) area for loading on to trains and transporting by rail to either the Bayswater/Liddell rail unloader or the Port of Newcastle. This would involve an average of four 8,500 tonne train movements per day. The potential road transport impacts associated with the Project therefore relate principally to the movement of employees and consumables/deliveries during the operational life of the mine, together with the movement of construction workers and building supplies during the construction phase. TRAFFIX has been commissioned by Wilpinjong Coal Pty Limited (WCPL) to undertake a road transport assessment of the Project. This report presents an assessment of road transport related issues for the Project in accordance with the general requirements of the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) Guide to Traffic Generating Developments (RTA, 2002). The report is structured as follows: Section K1: Introduction Section K2: Existing Traffic Conditions Section K3: Description of the Development Section K4: Traffic Generation During Mine Construction Section K5: Traffic Generation During Mine Operations Section K6: Other Traffic Implications of the Project Section K7: Recommended Traffic Management Measures Section K8: Conclusions K1.1 REGIONAL LOCATION AND PROJECT SITE The Project is located in the Ulan-Bylong area approximately 40 km to the north-east of the township of Mudgee, approximately 20 km to the east of the township of Ulan, and is to the west of the township of Wollar in the Hunter Region of New South Wales. The township of Bylong lies about 15 km to the east of the Project site. A regional location and Project site plan are provided on Figures K-1 and K-2 respectively. TRAFFIX K-1 Road Transport Assessment Mooki NEW Sydney Basin River Lake RAILWAY SOUTH PROJECT Keepit LOCATION Apsley River Mudgee MAIN NORTHERN WALES Newcastle Western Coalfield Sydney MUNGINDI TAMWORTH Peel Coxs River Lake Goran VICTORIA RAILWAY Melbourne River Nowendoc MAIN RANGE NORTHERN DIVIDING River BINNAWAY RAILWAY GREAT River CREEK Barnard - WERRIS RAILWAY Coolah Tops River National Mooki Park Manning Towarri River RAILWAY National River River River Park murra River Talbragar COOLAH RAILWAY Cassilis Hunter CRABOON Mun Barrington Tops Scone National Park COAST Krui GOLDEN Lake Williams GREAT Merriwa NEW Glenbawn NORTH Goulburn Manobalai Karuah Nature Reserve Ulan Muswellbrook Goulburn River National Park Sandy RAILWAY River GULGONG River Hollow Project Location - MERRIWA Lake SANDY Munghorn Gap ENGLAND River Gulgong Wollar Bylong RAILWAY Liddell Cudgegong Nature Reserve HOLLOW Blackwater Denman HIGHWAY DIVIDING (MR214) (MR208) Growee Hunter Wollemi (SH27) SINGLETON (MR208) National Park WALLERAWANG RANGE MAIN River Mudgee River Wollemi HIGHWAY HIGHWAY CASTLEREAGHRiver Avisford River National Park GWABEGAR NORTHERN MAITLAND Nature R A I L WAY PACIFIC Reserve (MR215) Road RAILWAY Rylstone MAITLAND Macdonald Wollemi Putty RAILWAY RAILWAY NEWCASTLE National Park FREEWAY HIGHWAY NORTHERN Caperttee Yengo Turon National MAIN Macquarie River Park (SH18) River Lake Gardens Of Stone Macquarie National Park NEWCASTLE Colo River Tuggerah River Winburndale River SYDNEY Lake BATHURST Nature Reserve GREAT WESTERN Blue Mountains GOSFORD Lithgow National Park RAILWAY HIGHWAY WESTERN MAIN HIGHWAY Broken Bay Nepean RICH MOND RANGE WESTERN RAILWAY MAIN PACIFIC Campbells RAILWAY Port Jackson SOUTH River DIVIDINGKanangra-Boyd SYDNEY National Park River Abercrombie Blue Mountains HIGHWAY PACIFIC OCEAN National Park Lake Abercrombie River RAILWAY Burragorang Royal National Park GREAT RAILWAY National Park River Nattai COAST River National Park SOUTH 0 10 50 HUME SOUTHERN Kilometres WOLLONGONG RAILWAY WILPINJONG COAL PROJECT EIS VALE UNANDERRA - Lake Illawarra MOSS FIGURE K-1 MAIN Regional Location TRAFFIX Wollondilly WIL-04-01 Road Trans Ass_001D 520 V 460 774 000 E 778 000 E 770 000 E 772 000 E 776 000 E 766 000 E 460 768 000 E V V 410 GGULGONGU - L G Ulan - Wollar RoadO N V G - - SSANDY Wollar A Goulburn River National Park N D Y 500 Road HHOLLOW O V L L Relocated 420 430 O W Road-Rail RRAILWAY 470 A 430 I Crossing L Realignment of W A Ulan-Wollar Road Y 470 6 422 000 N V 6 422 000 N 480 580 V 490 460 Relocated 450 Relocation of 11kV Creek 510 Road-Rail Electricity Transmission Line Crossing Temporary Realignment of PIT 6 Construction490 Camp Ulan-Wollar Road 500 470 350 V Planters Creek 460 410 Wilpinjong 410 Wollar 530 430 Creek V 410 V 1 V ECA-B MLA 1 400 6 420 000 N PIT 5 6 420 000 N V GGULGONG - SANDY HOLLOW U L G V O V N Murragamba G 380 PIT 4 - S A N 450 D Temporary Y Wollar H O Access Road L L PIT 1 Cumbo Creek O PIT 2 W Relocation Mogo RoadRoad Creek Rail Spur RRAILWAYA Block Corridor V I 390 Road L W and Rail Loop Train Bank A Y Load-out PIT 3 490 Gully Slate Gully Road Creek Bin 560 CHPP Water Araluen Lane 570 Supply Storage/ 400 Lane Ulan - Wollar Road 66 418 418 000 000 N N Initial Tailings 6 418 000 N Spring 530 - Disposal Area Wollar Creek Creek Mine V Road ECA-C Facilities Area CHPP 500 Product Coal ECA-A Creek 440 Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve Stockpiles/ 420 Handling Area ROM Pad Creek V 620 550 Narrow Bens Bens LEGEND MGNR 460 Mining Lease Application Boundary 400 6 416 000 N 600 6 416 000 N Cumbo Outline of Project Open Pits 610 Mine Access Road WOLLAR V Existing 11kV Electricity Transmission Line Road New Intersection Dwelling at Wollar Road Road Source: WCPL (2005), Thiess (2005) and Australasian Groundwater and Environmental Consultants (2005) Proposed Water Supply Bore Cumbo 390 Enhancement and Conservation Area