Rozelle park asbestos find forces contractor to probe other projects

Construction giant John Holland is investigating whether its other Sydney infrastructure projects have used contaminated mulch after the discovery of asbestos in parkland built above the Rozelle Interchange.

The admission from John Holland and its joint venture partner CPB Contractors means frustrated residents will have to wait up to three months for mulch to be removed before the inner-west park can be reopened.

The parklands will reopen gradually from March.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

The parkland designed to salve the impact of WestConnex’s underground spaghetti junction, having opened only in December, has been closed for the past two weeks. Transport for NSW said bonded asbestos was found in mulch in 17 areas in the park and nearby garden beds.

The joint venture’s executive general manager of major projects, Mark Davies, said on Monday the mulch from the contractor that supplied the contaminated material, Greenlife Resource Recovery, was a “commercially available product and [it] potentially has been used elsewhere”.

“We’re still going through tracing our records of all projects that we’ve constructed recently. We’re going through the diligence regarding timelines where Greenlife may have supplied product to other John Holland sites, and joint venture sites.”

Davies said John Holland CPB Contractors had carried out extensive testing of the mulch used throughout the Rozelle parkland and nearby areas. However, it had not yet tested any of its other infrastructure project sites.

“The material that was delivered to Rozelle obviously has been dedicated to Rozelle. I have no personal evidence of whether it’s been delivered to other sites. The reality of this being a recycled product, the actual material itself is different in each batch.”

Davies said the contractor had briefed staff on the matter and reiterated that “the advice from NSW Health has been the asbestos concentrations found have a very, very low risk to public health”.

“Until the [NSW Environment Protection Authority] has provided us with further information of their insights into the reasons behind the traces of asbestos within the Rozelle [parkland], we’re waiting for that information, so we can make a decision within the business as to what we do next.”

Davies said Greenlife Resource Recovery would not provide the replacement mulch for Rozelle. A search was under way for a new supplier given the “very significant quantity” of mulch required.

Transport for NSW Secretary Josh Murray (right) and John Holland CPB Contractors joint venture executive general manager of major projects Mark Davies on Monday.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray said the contractors would start work to remove and dispose of all asbestos-contaminated mulch from the park and surrounding sites on Tuesday.

The project to replace the mulch will occur in stages from east to west, and the first sections of the park are due to reopen in March. Most of the park is not expected to reopen until April.

Pedestrian and bike paths through the park will be closed during the cleanup. Under the remediation plans, truck movements will be limited to 16 trips per day to minimise traffic on Lilyfield Road.

Murray said the extended closure was “incredibly disappointing”, but workers ridding the site of all mulch delivered to the park in the 10 months to December faced a “complex task”.

“Laying mulch is one thing, but removal of that mulch from around new turf, new pathways, 4000 new trees and up to a million new plantings will be difficult, will be time-consuming and will require utmost care. It will also be done under a full asbestos safety regime,” Murray said.

Neither Murray nor Davies would be drawn on whether the contractor or taxpayers would foot the bill for the remediation.

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