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Melbourne's EastLink project

EastLink opened in June 2008.  It is Melbourne's second fully-electronic tollway, comprising about 45 kilometres of freeway-standard road connecting the city's eastern and south-eastern suburbs. EastLink runs between Donvale in Melbourne’s east, through Dandenong, to Frankston in the south-east of Melbourne. Around 40 per cent of Melburnians live in this corridor which includes important retail, commercial and industrial centres.

ConnectEast Group (“ConnectEast”) is the owner and operator of EastLink.
EPA Victoria continues to work with the community and industry on the EastLink project by:

  • assessing and regulating the impact of the air, water and noise emissions from the EastLink tunnels; and
  • evaluating environmental performance to ensure sound environmental management practices during the early operations period that commenced in June 2008.

This page provides information about the following topics:

EPA Waste Discharge Licence EA63607

EPA issued ConnectEast with a Waste Discharge Licence in May 2008, setting out the conditions under which the tunnel environmental management systems are to operate. 

Under this licence, ConnectEast is required to submit daily and quarterly air quality reports. These can be found at http://www.eastlink.com.au/page.aspx?cid=524.

Further information is available in EPA's Information Bulletin EPA Victoria and EastLink PDF Document (PDF 81KB).

Air quality and EastLink

Information on the air quality around EastLink is available in the following EPA publications:

Information on motor vehicles and their impact on air quality is also available.
Air quality results are provided online daily at www.eastlink.com.au/page.aspx?code=AirCharts.  The graphs are updated each day and a line on each graph shows the EPA Licence Limit where applicable.
Air quality monitoring reports prepared for the EPA every 3 months are available for download at http://www.eastlink.com.au/page.aspx?cid=533. These reports include data results, analysis, assessments and trends for in-tunnel, ventilation stack and ambient monitoring stations.

EPA's notification of air quality breaches

In the event of a breach of EPA licence limits, the EPA will be notified within 24 hours of the breach and a written report supplied within 7 days explaining the cause of the breach, action taken to address the breach and avoid recurrence of the breach.

Who can you speak to?

Queries relating to EPA's involvement in the EastLink Project or requests for further information should be directed to the EPA Information Centre.

Organisations with responsibility for delivery of the project can provide further information.

These include:

  • The Linking Melbourne Authority (formerly SEITA - PDF Document PDF 88KB) can provide information on the history, planning requirements and decision-making behind the building of EastLink. For more information visit www.linkingmelbourne.vic.gov.au. External site link

EPA works approval

Prior to issuing the EastLink Tunnels Waste Discharge Licence EA63607, the EPA had issued a Works Approval enabling the construction and commissioning of the tunnels and their environmental management systems.

Obtaining copies of the works approval application documents

Summaries of the application can be obtained at $8 each from the EPA Information Centre. The documents are also available on CD upon request from the EPA Information Centre.

Download the works approval application

Works approval PDF Document (PDF 14,273KB or 14.3MB)

Download the summary works approval application

Works approval application summary - low resolution PDF Document (PDF 1007KB or 1MB)

Works approval application summary - high resolution PDF Document (PDF 3968KB or 4MB)

Download annexures to the application

(Documents available as Adobe PDF files)

Annex number Document Download size
1-1 ANE Air Quality Assessment March 2006

Due to the large file size of this document, it is being made available for viewing on CD at the EPA Information Centre as well as being available for public inspection at the location listed below.

PDF Document 73MB
1-2 Emission Data for Air Quality Modelling 23Feb PDF Document 490KB
1-3 Air Quality Model approval letter 19092005 PDF Document 50KB
1-5 City Link Emission Data Comparison PDF Document 178KB
2-1 Bassett Breakout Noise Report 5 Sep PDF Document 18KB
2-2 G Harding EastLink WAA Acoustics Report 30 Jan PDF Document 2,885KB or 2.9MB
3 Tunnel Ventilation System Report 8 Feb PDF Document 1,618KB or 1.6MB
4-1 Groundwater Management Strategy Report PDF Document 802KB
4-2 Isokinetic Probe & PM10 PM2 Cyclones PDF Document 823KB
4-3 Mullum Mullum Vegetation Monitoring Regime PDF Document 13,595KB or 13.6MB
4-4 Groundwater Monitoring Date (Version1) 06 PDF Document 32KB
4-5 Stack Monitoring Report Extract 17 Feb PDF Document 11,750KB or 11.75MB
4-6 Wetland Description PDF Document 4191KB or 4.2MB
5 EIP EastLink Tunnells Rev C PDF Document 188KB
6 Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Efficiency PDF Document 299KB
7 Hyder Traffic and Emissions Data PDF Document 14,852KB or 14.9MB
8 Technology Review PDF Document 324KB

The documents are also available for public inspection free of charge from during business hours at the EPA Victoria Library.

Responses to Section 22 information requests (Notice 1)

(Documents available as Adobe PDF files)

Document Download size
Attachment A - Ventilation system design and monitoring PDF Document 15,218KB or 15.2MB
Attachment B - Noise PDF Document 2,111KB or 2.1MB
Attachment C - Air quality assessment PDF Document 16,599KB or 16.6MB
Attachment D - Surface water PDF Document 160KB
Attachment E - Groundwater PDF Document 1,555KB or 1.6MB

Responses to Section 22 information requests (Notice 2)

(Documents available as Adobe PDF files)

Document Download size
Time Series Data for Carbon Monoxide (CO) PDF Document 1,548KB or 1.5MB
Time Series Data for Nitrogen Dioxode (NO2) PDF Document 1,527KB or 1.5MB
Time Series Data for particulate matter - PM10 PDF Document 935KB
Time Series Data for particulate matter - PM25 PDF Document 906KB

Additional reports provided as appendices to this response can be viewed at the EPA Information Centre.

The decision to grant works approval

EPA granted works approval on 5 September 2006.

The basis for the decision was that the application had met the requirements of the Environment Protection Act 1970 and all relevant State environment protection policies.
In making its assessment, EPA undertook a rigorous assessment process including independent air quality modelling and extensive additional information requests of the applicant.

Key findings of the assessment were:

  • the ventilation system is a best practice design for road tunnels;
  • the worst-case emission scenario prepared by the applicant is robust, as it is based on in-tunnel air quality limits and observation of monitored data from the Burnley tunnel;
  • the approach to modelling is appropriate for the assessment of stack emissions in a valley environment;
  • emissions from the ventilation system will have a negligible impact on air quality and are within levels specified to protect peoples health (an example graph for particulate mater is illustrated in the Figure below);
  • noise from the ventilation system meets existing Victorian standards for noise emissions from commercial premises;

EPA has required that water from the tunnel is discharged directly to sewer, pending assessment of waste water quality and its suitability or otherwise for disposal via a wetland to Wollert Creek. Water management is designed to enable protection of local waterways such as Wollert Creek and Mullum Mullum Creek.

Figure 1: Example stack impact on particulate matter for the worst affected receptor (annual average)

Figure 1: Example stack impact on particulate matter for the worst affected receptor (annual average)

These findings are supported by experience with the CityLink project, where extensive monitoring has found no detectible change in air quality associated with tunnel emissions.

Whilst EPA’s assessment shows that air quality impacts are negligible, it is important that the community’s concerns are properly addressed. EPA is therefore requiring air quality monitoring in the tunnel, in the stacks and in the surrounding areas for a period of time before and after the tunnels are open for road traffic. The results of this monitoring are publicly available.

EPA’s response to public concerns

During the consultation period ConnectEast’s works approval was made available for public comment, a number of submissions were received and EPA sought additional information from ConnectEast. This additional information contributed significantly to the overall assessment of the works approval.

EPA is now satisfied that all relevant concerns and environmental requirements have been adequately addressed.

The key concerns raised, and EPA’s responses, are provided in an issues and response report. PDF Document (PDF 150KB)

Works Approval document

The works approval document PDF Document (PDF 476KB) provided approval to construct the plant and equipment associated with the ventilation system and other waste management equipment. This works approval was granted with conditions concerning the installation, environmental improvement plan provisions and ongoing monitoring.