ARTC Inland Rail release environmental impact statement for Gowrie to Helidon section
A draft environmental impact for the Inland Rail Gowrie to Helidon section reveals plans for the largest diameter diesel freight tunnel in the southern hemisphere.
Development
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The Australian Rail Track Corporation’s Inland Rail has released a draft environmental impact statement for the $1.35 billion Gowrie to Helidon section of the project.
The 28km stretch of new track is planned to run from Gowrie, north west of Toowoomba to Helidon and include several significant viaducts and cuttings, as well as a 6.2km tunnel through the Toowoomba Range, which when completed will be the largest diameter diesel freight tunnel in the southern hemisphere.
The State Government’s Office of the Co-ordinator-General released the draft EIS on Monday, August 2, with public submissions closing on October 25.
Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio said council’s response would focus on infrastructure and environmental impacts and continue on from its submission on the Border to Gowrie EIS.
“Council identified a number of infrastructure and environmental impact concerns with the B2G EIS, including the sourcing of water for construction purposes,” Mr Antonio said.
“The same forensic attention to detail will be applied to the draft G2H EIS to ensure impacts on infrastructure, the environment and other areas of the project are successfully mitigated.
“While council supports the Inland Rail project, we must ensure that while significant benefits are delivered to the region from the project, the potential impacts from such a major project are not overlooked.”
According to the draft EIS, construction on the Gowrie to Helidon section will begin in 2022, and will take about five years to complete at an estimated cost of $1.35 billion.
“The Toowoomba Range Tunnel is the longest single construction task associated with the Inland Rail program, with a construction duration closely approaching four years,” the report states.
“As part of the wider Inland Rail program, the project will help relieve pressure on existing road and rail corridors by providing a continuous rail freight route between Melbourne and Brisbane. The service offering will be competitive with road freight (i.e. a Melbourne to Brisbane transit time of less than 24 hours, with a reliability of 98 per cent), and will better connect regional farms with domestic and international export markets.”
Under State Government guidelines, the EIS provides a comprehensive description of:
• The current environment in the area of the project
• All potential environmental impacts of the project
• Proponent proposals to avoid, minimise, mitigate and/or offset those potential impacts.
The G2H EIS can be viewed online now.
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