Houses inundated, flood levels up since Airport Link opened but council says tunnel not to blame
Residents are at their wits end trying to get council to mitigate flooding they say was caused by Airport Link but their efforts may all be vain despite evidence that backs their claim.
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Brisbane City Council raised a flood level by almost 20 per cent after Airport Link opened and even negotiated to buy inundated homes during the construction phase, but it has denied the toll road was to blame
Residents have claimed for years that inferior flood mitigation works were carried out on the $4.8 billion project and their homes have borne the brunt with extensive inundation.
In 2015, three years after Airport Link opened, the council raised the one in two-year flood level (Q2) for Kedron Brook by almost 20 per cent on the previous mark set in 1995.
In 2011, the council began negotiations, and later bought, two homes following heavy inundation which the owners attributed to a flood wall along a nearby waterway.
Bev Drinkwater, who has lived in Huet St, Nundah since the late seventies, said the first time her property had been inundated was in 2013.
Ms Drinkwater’s house backs onto Kedron Brook and in the mid-eighties the council used landfill to build up her rear yard to prevent water spilling onto her property.
“The landfill was effective until 2013 and when it flooded again in 2015 it was over my head,” Ms Drinkwater said.
“The flooding was that bad water was running back up the Brook because it had nowhere to go and that’s all because of Airport Link.”
A resident’s action group has pleaded with council to widen and deepen Schulz’s Canal, a section of Kedron Brook that runs parallel to the carpark on the south side of Toombul Shopping Centre.
Extensive flood mitigation was planned for the canal but six months before Airport Link opened in July 2012, the council approved a development application to scale down the works.
Former mayor Graham Quirk acknowledged in a 2016 letter to residents’ action group leader Cameron Russell that the Kedron Brook flood levels had risen.
“In relation to Q2 level of your (Clayfield) property, I am advised that before being set at the current level of 5.11, the figure was 4.40,” he wrote.
A 2006 Airport Link drainage paper stated residential properties in the vicinity of Toombul Shopping Centre were sensitive to changes in flooding conditions.
Mr Russell said up to 70 homeowners had been affected and despite repeated calls to the council to address the problem that “we have just being fobbed off’.
One of several houses the council has bought, under the Voluntary Home Purchase Scheme since Airport Link opened, belonged to Peter Maddern.
His former lot at 62 Wongara St, Clayfield, and the one next door, are now vacant blocks.
On the opposite side of the road sits a vacant block that has been raised a metre.
Mr Maddern said prior to construction starting on Airport Link in 2005 his biggest issue was lateral water caused by an overflowing gutter in Wongara St.
“We copped our first flood in 2009 and in all we had four floods after a flood wall was erected further up towards Sandgate Road,” he said.
“We never had a problem in the 10 years we were there until then.”
He said the council negotiated to buy his home in 2011, just months before the flood mitigation was scaled back and almost a year before the tunnel opened.
His next door neighbour at 60 Wongara St, Greg Connellan said the council bought his home of more than 20 years in 2015.
He said his house had flooded “three or four times” in two decades but it only ever reached “just above the knee”.
“Once Airport Link opened it flooded more often and it was above shoulder high,” he said.
“In 2015, I had just had enough. They knew it was a flood plain for years and they have done nothing to make it better.”
Mr Russell said not only were residents living in fear of being flooded when major storms struck but their insurance premiums had skyrocketed.
He said the responsibility to remedy the situation should fall back on construction consortium Thiess John Holland, the State Government, council and toll operator Transurban.
“If the work is not done we want Council to work with Thiess John Holland, Transurban and the State Government to pay appropriate compensation to affected land owners that will cover cost of raising homes,” Mr Russell said.
“In those instances where it is not practical to raise houses due to construction type then these houses should be purchased on a compulsory basis.”
A council spokesman properties within proximity to Kedron Brook and had experienced flooding for decades.
“Council refutes any claims the purchase of the homes through the Voluntary Home Purchase Scheme are linked to the State Government’s Airport Link Tunnel,” the spokesman said.
“Further, an expert report from the Airport Link contractors verified that there has been no increase in flood levels in the area since the Airport Link project.”
Labor’s BCC opposition spokesman Rod Harding said Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner should release the contents of a report commissioned by Mr Quirk to review flood mitigation and levels associated with Airport Link.
“Only Adrian Schrinner can answer all of the legitimate outstanding questions about the flooding issues from the construction of Airport Link by releasing the results of the investigation that the Brisbane City Council announced in April this year,” Mr Harding said.
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