Last-minute injunction delays start of Allianz Stadium demolition
A last-minute court injunction has delayed the start of the demolition of Allianz Stadium at Moore Park, just hours before bulldozers were due to move in.
The demolition of Allianz Stadium at Moore Park has been delayed by a last-minute court injunction, just weeks out from the March state election.
Contractor Lendlease was scheduled to bring in the bulldozers to begin the ‘hard demolition’ of the sports ground, but the developer is now in a holding pattern until the injunction is lifted.
The NSW government awarded Lendlease the $730 million contract to knock down and rebuild Allianz Stadium at Moore Park in December.
Since then the 45,000 seats are slowly being removed, the scoreboards have been taken down and the turf is being ripped up.
On Wednesday, the Land and Environment Court was told the NSW government “suppressed” evidence that soil underneath Allianz Stadium was potentially contaminated with carcinogens during a botched planning process to knock down and rebuild the facility.
In his opening statement, Local Democracy Matters’ lawyer Tim Robertson said the levels of contamination were “well in excess of the criteria for recreational use”.
LDM also argues the government did not exhibit the stadium demolition proposal for the required period of time, and failed to consider design excellence.
The community group’s case is being heard concurrently with an action brought by Waverley Council, which is also challenging the knockdown.
The bulldozers were meant to arrive tomorrow morning to begin knocking the structural elements down — including the roof and the buildings — but this has now been delayed by the court injunction ruling from the Land and Environment Court.
It’s understood the court proceedings today were scheduled to finish at 4pm, however they had dragged on until 6pm — forcing Justice Nicola Pain to impose the injunction until 4pm Monday.
Late last night an Infrastructure NSW spokesman said: “Infrastructure NSW and its contractor Lendlease will abide by the court’s order.”
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