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If you experience noise, vibration, dust or other environmental impacts relating to the West Gate Tunnel project, contact Victoria's Big Build(opens in a new window).
Project overview
The West Gate Tunnel project (the project) will deliver an alternative river crossing to the West Gate Bridge. It aims to remove trucks from residential streets.
The project includes:
- widening the West Gate Freeway
- twin tunnels between the West Gate Freeway and the Maribyrnong River
- a bridge over the Maribyrnong River and an elevated motorway with direct access to the port
- smart technology linking to other freeway management systems
- new and upgraded cycling and walking paths.
Construction on the project began in 2018.
To learn more, visit Victoria's Big Build(opens in a new window).
Our role in the West Gate Tunnel project
We're helping the project understand its environmental impacts and obligations under the Environment Protection Act 2017(opens in a new window). We're working with the project across all phases, including environmental assessment, early works, construction and operation.
We advise the project on matters relating to:
- air pollution
- contaminated land
- contaminated and waste soil management
- greenhouse gas emissions and resource efficiency
- human health
- land use and planning
- noise and vibration
- surface water and groundwater.
The West Gate Tunnel project and the environment
The Minister for Planning decided that an environment effects statement (EES) was required for this project.
The EES assesses the potential environmental impacts of the proposed development. It provides an approach to manage these impacts. The EES is available from Victoria's Big Build(opens in a new window).
Impacts relating to pollution and waste identified in the EES are:
- noise and vibration
- odour, dust and vehicle emissions
- run-off from construction sites
- impacts on groundwater
- hazardous waste
- waste soil.
We made a submission to the EES process,
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Managing impacts on human health and the environment
Risks to human health and the environment are eliminated, reduced or managed by:
Environmental duties are set out in the Act. The project owners and contractors must meet all duties that apply, including:
We issue permissions under the Act and in accordance with the Environment Protection Regulations 2021(opens in a new window). The project must meet all conditions of the issued permissions.
The project's Environmental Management Strategy sets out the environmental performance requirements that the project must meet.
Learn more about obligations during construction.
Managing noise and vibration
The project owners and contractors must:
- monitor noise and vibration according to the Environmental Management Strategy
- follow our Noise control guidelines
- reduce the impact of noise on the community so far as reasonably practicable.
You should not be able to hear noise from the project between 10 pm and 7 am from any habitable room of a house.
There may be times when work cannot be completed during normal business hours. This includes work that:
- involves continuous work – for example, a concrete pour
- poses an unacceptable risk to life or property
- risks a major traffic hazard
- could cause a major disruption to the transport system.
When unavoidable work is scheduled out of normal business hours, you should be contacted and told:
- when the noise will happen
- how long it will go on for.
Learn how we regulate and manage construction noise.
Managing air quality and dust
Ambient air quality is monitored at 6 locations across the project. They test for PM10 and PM2.5 particles.
Dust is monitored at worksites within the project area.
Find air quality monitoring results at Victoria’s Big Build(opens in a new window).
Managing emissions from vehicles
The project is building a tunnel ventilation system under an L03 – Road tunnel ventilation systems licence issued by us. The licence includes conditions to manage risks to human health and the environment. This includes air quality monitoring.
Managing groundwater
There is low-level per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination in the groundwater along the tunnel alignment. It's slightly elevated compared to background levels found in other populated areas of Victoria. The level of PFAS is:
- slightly above drinking water standards
- below the accepted threshold for water that you can safely swim in.
Managing waste soil and spoil
The project must manage all waste to meet the waste obligations and duties set out in the Act.
Waste soil must be managed in a way that complies with Victoria’s environmental laws. We work with the project on how it can manage and classify waste soil across all phases of the project.
Spoil is the waste material brought up from the tunnel boring machines. About 3 million tonnes (1.5 million m3) of spoil was generated over an 18-month period.
We regulated the management of the spoil through a L09 – Disposing of tunnel boring machine spoil licence. The licence had conditions to prevent harm to human health and the environment.
The spoil was taken to the Bulla Spoil Processing Facility. We assessed the Bulla Spoil Processing Facility to make sure that it addressed all environmental and human health risks. This included groundwater and surface water quality, air quality and noise. The facility is also designed to manage risks associated with low levels of PFAS in tunnel-boring spoil.
Testing the spoil
The spoil was tested for contaminants, including PFAS.
All contaminants except for PFAS were consistently found to be within background levels. Leachable PFAS was detected in less than 1% of spoil samples.
The test results determined whether the spoil was suitable to be:
- reused
- deposited into Bulla Spoil Processing Facility’s containment cell
- disposed of at a facility authorised to accept it.
To see a detailed testing report, contact us.
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