A local man has marked the proposed new height of the Edmondson Street rail bridge. Photo: Chris Roe.
If you’ve been across the Edmondson Street bridge in the past few days, you may have noticed a couple of curious pink marks spray-painted onto the light poles at each end.
The marks were ”allegedly” put there by a “Concerned Family Man” – let’s call him CFM – wanting to highlight the impact of the Inland Rail project on Wagga’s CBD.
“The bridge is gonna be raised and the road level is gonna go up 2.8 metres,” explains CFM.
“So what I did is I measured up 2.8 metres and put it there to show that’s where the cars will be driving and pedestrians walking.”
Raising the Edmondson Street bridge is one of the main changes on the cards for the city as the $15 billion rail project rolls through town.
The structure currently has a clearance of about five metres; however, the upgraded Inland Rail will need clearances of more than seven metres to allow carriages double-stacked with shipping containers to pass through.
“The height and the size of these things are going to have a big impact on the city,” says CFM.
“Because of where I live, I’ve been following this for a while and when I’ve read some of their conclusions, like ‘minimal traffic here’ and ‘not much there’, I think – where did you get that from?
“I just think some of the data in the Environmental Impact Statement is a bit light-on.”
The Edmondson Street bridge will be raised to allow double-stacked freight trains to pass through. Photo: Chis Roe.
During construction on the bridge, Edmondson and Erin streets will be closed and, according to the EIS, will require a traffic detour for up to nine months.
“A traffic detour to the east and west of Edmondson Street will be established, with either detour route to take about nine minutes,” it reads.
While CFM is concerned about the construction phase and its impact on traffic, he’s more worried about the long-term effects of the enormous 1.8-kilometre trains rumbling through the middle of town.
The daily peak of 12 trains will rise slowly over the coming years, reaching a maximum of 20 by 2040, and they could increase in length to 3.6 km.
“It’s just gonna be a lot more noise and vibration and a lot more wind,” says CFM.
“The better option is to go around, for sure, otherwise we’ll be cutting Wagga in half.
“They say we’re gonna be better off for it, but I can’t see how me or you or my next-door neighbour’s going to be better off.”
The proposed Edmondson Street bridge. Photo: ARTC.
There’s no doubt that the major infrastructure project will be a boon for industry in the region as it improves the line to accommodate greater weight limits and speeds, and is fundamental to the Riverina Intermodal Freight and Logistics (RiFL) Hub at Bomen.
While the Wagga community has been broadly supportive of the innovations and development at the Bomen site, many are questioning the decision to go through the city.
In the meantime, CFM has decided he will take matters into his own hands, not just with the graffiti but by relocating his family away from the railway line.
“I’m not going to be a victim of this, so I’ve picked up my family and we’ve moved because there’s no way known that we could live there under those circumstances,” he says.
A spokesperson for ARTC said it remained “committed to working closely and respectfully with landholders and local communities throughout the design, development, and construction of Inland Rail”.
“Operational noise and vibration will be reviewed again during the detailed design phase and community members identified as being potentially impacted will be consulted on mitigation options,” the spokesperson said.
The ARTC is accepting community submissions until Tuesday, 13 September.
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