Beaches Link tunnel opponents ask why homes need to be bulldozed for sporting fields

Questions are being asked why more than 30 homes in one street will be demolished to make way for the proposed Beaches Link tunnel.

Artist's impression of the proposed Beaches Link tunnel. The EIS for the $8 billion motorway will not be available until at least mid-2020. Picture: Transport for NSW

• Man jumps in ocean to evade police
• Model jailed for burglaries

QUESTIONS have been raised about why the NSW Government is buying up 31 homes on one street to make way for the Beaches Link tunnel even the road tunnel is yet to be approved.

And opponents of the project say that the latest official design document shows that the houses in Dudley St, Balgowlah are not going to be bulldozed for the toll road, but for footy fields and netball courts.

An artist's impression from the Beaches Link Community Update document released on November 26, 2019 showing the proposed tunnel access road and proposed sporting fields where Dudley St used to be. Picture: Transport for NSW

As part of plans for the proposed $8 billion motorway from the Warringah and Gore Hill freeways at Cammeray to Balgowlah and Seaforth, Balgowlah golf course will be taken over.

The course will be replaced by a tunnel access road linking the Burnt Bridge Creek Deviation with Sydney Rd. The remainder of the site will be turned into open public space.

But the Balgowlah Residents Group, opposed to Beaches Link, questioned why the homes, where some families have lived for decades, need to be demolished at all.

Map of the proposed routes of the Beaches Link tunnel and Western Harbour Tunnel. Source: RMS

Group co-chair Nerissa Levy said an image in the final reference design for the tunnel released on November 26 showed Dudley St being replaced by open space.

“These home acquisitions are not for the tunnel footprint or for access roads, but for sporting fields,” Ms Levy said.

“Who wants their kids playing sport while breathing in traffic fumes from an unfiltered exhaust stack?”

Ms Levy also questioned why Roads and Maritime Services officials have been telling Dudley St residents that their homes will be acquired, when the tunnel has yet to get the green light.

“The government said the environmental impact statement won’t even be released until mid-2020,” she said.

An artist’s impression of the Beaches Link showing a new road linking Burnt Bridge Creek Deviation with Sydney Rd, Balgowlah golf course being converted to community open space and no detail of what will replace Dudley St.

“People in Dudley St we’ve spoken to are confused as to why (the acquisitions are) needed.

“Some of them are happy to go, to get it over and done with, but others don’t want to go at all and are absolutely devastated.”

When asked by the Manly Daily if the government will begin acquiring properties on Dudley St before the Beaches Link EIS is released, a Transport for NSW spokesman said: “We understand (the residents) may want certainty and have offered to start the purchase process now, or at a time that better suits them.”