Our politicians love building tunnels. It has been said “a politician is someone who on seeing the light at the end of the tunnel orders more tunnel”. The quote is anonymous but in Victoria it is certainly true. In Melbourne we are already digging the West Gate Tunnel and Metro Rail Tunnels, and shortly the North East Link and later the Suburban Rail Loop and the Airport Rail link – all with tunnels attached. All projects have question marks over their viability but one of the first things the government should do with any of these projects is check where it can put the dirt.
This sounds simple and elementary but it is becoming a real problem. This is not just because of the huge amounts involved but because much of it is contaminated with highly toxic chemicals. This is especially true for the West Gate Tunnel.
In the case of the West Gate Tunnel the problem is so bad it has threatened the viability of this project. This issue has been covered extensively over many months by The Age newspaper. In 6/3/2020 it reported “Secret borehole tests reveal PFAS contamination in soil near Coode Island – where a toxic inferno was triggered by a chemical explosion in 1991 — is so severe that dumping the waste in landfills would be impossible without very expensive treatment. Contaminated soil on the West Gate Tunnel’s construction site on New Street, South Kingsville”. The problem is so severe it brought the project to a standstill and the builders threatened to walk away from it.
The toxicity of the soil in this area was well known and engineers involved in the development of this project should have anticipated this or at least done some soil tests first at the beginning of the feasibility and planning stage. But this is only the beginning of this State Government’s tunneling odyssey and the question remains – where will it put the dirt for all these tunnels – now and in the future? It is time the State government stopped digging holes (not just in the ground but in government finances and debt creation) and started to do some planning and re-evaluate the merits of these projects.