The multibillion-dollar North East Link project has quietly downgraded its noise-protection measures around a primary school in Melbourne’s east, sparking alarm among residents who fear cost cuts will compromise children’s wellbeing.
A planned noise wall at Belle Vue Primary School, intended to shield students from the $26 billion toll road linking Bulleen to Watsonia, has been entirely scrapped. A second boundary wall has been cut to less than half its original height.
George, a nearby resident who asked that his last name not be used because of fears of reprisals, said community concerns had been ignored, noting that one of two ventilation points for the Big Build project’s 6.5-kilometre tunnels is about 700 metres from the school.
“Carbon monoxide at the school will be super high,” George said. “I really pity the kids.”
Initial plans distributed to Balwyn North residents showed a nine-metre acoustic wall along Belle Vue’s northern boundary. This was subsequently reduced to between seven and nine metres, and then recently cut again to between three and four metres.
A separate three-metre noise wall initially slated for the Bulleen Road side of the school campus has been abandoned altogether.
When questioned over the design changes, a North East Link spokesperson said the revised plans would still satisfy strict environmental standards.
The spokesperson repeated the Allan government’s often-stated position that “the North East Link will take 15,000 trucks off local roads – cutting noise and pollution on local streets”.
“We have worked closely with the local community and Belle Vue Primary School, and all new noise walls will meet strict noise standards,” the spokesperson said.
George said the quality of the building materials had also been progressively cheapened, shifting from mostly concrete to mostly acrylic, and finally to weathered steel.
“It’s impossible to have the noise objectives, the decibel objectives they have promised,” he said.
“It’s impossible acoustics-wise, physics-wise, and I could prove it with an equation. It doesn’t require a genius.”
The Bulleen Road bridge, which is metres from the Belle Vue playground, was opened to traffic last year after initial works to widen it from six to 10 lanes.
The bridge and connecting freeway are elevated above the school playground and nearby homes, meaning traffic is clearly visible from ground level.
George said his family was one of several that had chosen not to send their children to Belle Vue due to the massive roadwork project, despite it being their closest school.
“If you look at the Périph in Paris, or the Autobahn in Munich, or in Berlin, they are called ring roads because they surround the city, they don’t go through the city, right?” he said.
“When this project continues, it will be even more of a disaster.”
Belle Vue’s student numbers plummeted to a decade-low of just 126 students last year. Enrolments peaked at 199 students in 2018, before major works on the tollway began.
An Education Department spokesperson said that the school administration had not received any formal complaints regarding the neighbouring construction site.
“We encourage families to raise any concerns directly with their school so they can be addressed,” the spokesperson said.
The government’s environmental protection guidelines state that noise walls should prevent the noise source from being seen from the “noise-sensitive area”.
Robyn Schofield, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Melbourne, said the guidelines also say that a barrier’s distance from a noise source should be five times its height, meaning a 45-metre distance is required for a nine-metre-high wall.
“Clearly that’s never going to be possible,” Schofield said.
Schofield said noise walls that are tall enough to obstruct the view of noise sources typically best protect the area closest to the wall.
“As you move away, you get less protected,” she said. “If you can have a line of sight to the source of pollution or source of noise, you have no protection.”
Schofield said the biggest health risk from vehicles was nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, particularly from heavy-vehicle diesel engines.
“Living within 50 metres of a major road is a strong indicator of the burden of disease from vehicles,” she said.
“Diesel emissions are a class one carcinogen, and basically all of our heavy traffic [vehicles] are diesel.”
The North East Link is due to be completed in 2028. When then-premier Daniel Andrews first pledged in 2016 to build the toll road, it carried a $10 billion price tag. Its budget has since skyrocketed to $26 billion.
Opposition transport spokesman Evan Mulholland said Labor was blatantly cutting corners to cover the cost of mismanagement after the $16 billion blowout.
“Residents were promised proper protection from noise and heavy traffic; not a compromised design quietly downgraded behind closed doors,” he said.
“Communities should not be forced to accept lower living standards because Labor cannot manage major projects, control costs or stand up to its CFMEU mates.”
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