Lisarow: Pacific Highway upgrade to shake the dead

VIBRATION sensors will be used to ensure the long departed won’t be shaking in their graves when work begins to upgrade the Pacific Highway beside the heritage listed Lisarow Cemetery.

Lisarow Cemetery will be monitored during the widening of the Pacific Highway. (AAP Image/Sue Graham)

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VIBRATION sensors will be used to ensure the long departed won’t be shaking in their graves when work begins to upgrade the Pacific Highway beside the heritage listed Lisarow Cemetery.

A contract to upgrade a 1.6km-long section of the highway to two lanes in each direction between Ourimbah St and Parsons Rd has been awarded to Daracon Contractors with work expected to start early this year.

The $178 million upgrade will eliminate another choke-point for the 30,000 motorists who use the highway daily and includes a new bridge over the rail line, new traffic lights at Railway Crescent and Tuggerah St and improved pedestrian and bike paths.

Lisarow Cemetery is screened from the highway by large trees, which will be removed and new trees planted. (AAP Image/Sue Graham)

The widening of the road will see a retaining wall built at the foot of the historic cemetery where the old sandstone and iron gates have already been removed.

According to Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) plans each stone of the gates was to be numbered with a non-permanent marker to ensure that they can be restored in the exact same order by a qualified stone mason.

“In the event that the graves are damaged during the construction of the proposal, the graves would be repaired,” the RMS’s plan states.

An audit of the condition of headstones and sensors will be used during the upgrade. (AAP Image/Sue Graham)

Lisarow Cemetery was developed as part of the Church of England circa 1858, when a temporary church was built on land granted to Robert Cox.

There are 261 burials within the 17 rows of graves at the cemetery with the first burial taking place on January 21, 1840.

“The use of heavy equipment next to the cemetery has the potential to cause physical damage to these items,” the RMS plans state.

The cemetery gates before they were removed. Picture: supplied

“The damage could be caused by accidental contact from construction machinery and vehicles coming in contact with them or vibration from construction of the proposal.

“If any damage occurs during construction, additional protection of the headstones and

grave components will be required. Protective measures may include: the erection of support structures; shoring up of the headstones and above ground components of the graves.”

However the RMS said no machinery would be allowed onto the cemetery and the Camphor Laurel trees on the boundary, which are earmarked to be removed, will be replaced with fast growing species.