Received the following letter from VicRoads. We will wait for their follow up letter to see what it contains.

Received the following letter from VicRoads.

Cannot remember any "weather events". Are VicRoads just putting us off or are the test results not showing what they want them to show so they are stalling?

Michael O'Brien responded to my email with the following

Dear Chris,

As I understand the letter, it is making the point that the measured noise
levels (before the recent works) in your area are not in excess of the
VicRoads decibel limit for which additional noise works are required.

That is to say, the recent works were done purely as a trial and not
because your area's noise levels meet the threshold for required
enhancements under the state noise attenuation policy.

I read the letter to say that the before and after noise measurements will
be used to determine whether the recently performed works remain, or are
modified in some way.

That is, I believe that what you understand to mean "the existing noise
barriers" as including the recent works is different to what VicRoads
intends (being the original works prior to the recent modifications).

As a consequence, I understand that VicRoads will be guided by the before
and after noise measurements in determining the future of the recent works
- as we previously discussed.

I trust this assists.

His response totally ignores the point I was trying to make. It's like watching a politician being interviewed on TV where he is asked one question and gives his answer about completely unrelated!

Received a letter from VicRoads yesterday, see below

 

I found the tone of the letter totally offensive with its implication that we could be treated as second class citizens by VicRoads and used as guinea pigs for their trials. Have written the following letter to Michael O'Brien to bring the letter to his attention.

Dear Michael,

Thank you for the update. I was hoping not to have reason to contact you
until the results of the monitoring were available, but I received a
letter from VicRoads yesterday which I thought I should bring to your
attention. A copy of the letter is attached.

In particular I draw your attention to the third paragraph which states
that the residences in this area "do not warrant further modification to
the existing noise barriers" and therefore we were chosen as trial sites.
The implication of this is that the quality of life of the residents here
does not matter and we are to be treated like second class citizens. Also,
that we can be used as guinea pigs for VicRoads experiments. This attitude
is intolerable and offensive.

I should say that I have shown this letter to other residents and their
reactions were   equally outraged.

I appreciate what you are doing on our behalf but I fear that the attitude
expressed in the attached letter means that VicRoads do not take the
inconvenience they have caused , nor our concerns, seriously.

I look forward to your response.

Your sincerely

Don't know if it was the email I sent to Michael O'Brien and Gary Liddle yesterday but some activity at last! An acoustic engineer turned up this evening to put a noise monitor at my front window. It along with nine other in streets in the area will stay in place until Saturday to measure the noise. Hopefully these monitors will prove what we all have noticed - that the noise levels have increased. They will compare these results with measurements they took in march.

In order to keep the pressure up I sent following email to Michael O'Brien with a copy to Gary Liddle:

Dear Mr O'Brien,

As agreed at our meeting on Friday 23/11 at Basil Street, I am following up to inform you of any activity by VicRoads concerning the increased noise from the freeway noise barrier upgrade. So far we have heard nothing from them regarding our complaints. In fact, their inactivity makes us feel that they are ignoring our concerns and by doing so are treating us with contempt. Many signed letters of complaint have been sent to them and as yet they have not even done us the courtesy of an acknowledgement, let alone some activity to show they are remedying the situation.

The local residents are angry about the noise and frustrated with VicRoads lack of action. Surely VicRoads has a responsibility to listen to the concerns of the community and act on them, especially when their actions have caused the problem in the first place.

I trust that with your continuing support we can get this matter resolved quickly.

Yours sincerely

Chris Babarczy

Received 4 more letters from residents which I have forwarded on to VicRoads. The response from VicRoads so far has been non-existent. They have, in my opinion, treated the residents with total contempt and an arrogance which is unbelievable. Not only have they performed substandard work but when we expressed our concern and dissatisfaction they have replied with complete silence and have not even done us the courtesy of acknowledging our correspondence. I intend to write to Michael O'Brien, who seemed willing to help, and ask him to escalate the matter and get some action from VicRoads.

Contacted by Diane at Michael O'Brien's office at 12:30 that he could spare 10 minutes at 1:45 to meet me outside my place to hear the noise and see the work that was done on the barriers. Went home and met him with June Mainland. The upshot was

• He has discussed the barriers with VicRoads and was told by them that there may have been a problem with the installation, i.e. gaps may have been left in the existing barriers when the upgrade was carried out. VicRoads have said they would fix.
• He agreed the noise was loud.
• We requested that the remedial work be carried out ASAP and he committed to chasing them up. Also why hasn't after testing of the noise levels been made.
• He will keep us informed of his progress VicRoads and I will do likewise of any activity by VicRoads and the outcomes.

For the first time there is some hope that things may be moving and we may get some actions from VicRoads. Just what the end result will be remains to be seen but at last things seem to be starting to happen. All in all, it is the most positive I have felt since this whole saga started began.

Contacted the office of the local state MP, Michael O'Brien, this morning and spoke to Diane. Was gratified to be recognised because of all the emails I have been sending. She told me that my concerns had been forwarded to the transport minister from whom I haven't heard anything. She implied that  a letter was going to be sent from Michael O'Brien to all residents who signed the letter to Gary Liddle. We have already been promised a letter from VicRoads which I expect will be full of weasel words and will say nothing positive. I hope the letter from Michael O'Brien will provide more hope. I also invited Michael O'Brien to come and hear the noise for himself. Diane took my contact number and promised to get back to me soon

Received 2 more letters from residents. Have scanned and emailed them to Gary Liddle.

12:00 Rang Graham Watt, Member for Burwood, who seems to be championing these new barriers to tell him that they don't work and make things worse. I was told he would call back.

14:00 Have not heard from VicRoads as promised on Friday. Rang Barbara Forrester to remind her. She was apologetic and said theta she would follow up.

14:30 Just had a call from Michael Dezilwa at VicRoads in Burwood. The major points of the conversation were

• Our area of East Malvern did not warrant upgrading of the noise walls and was only chosen to test the new barriers because of the access available to complete the works, for testing and the impact is not great because of the parkland. There are other areas which warrant proper barriers more than us, therefore we were used as the guinea pigs. There is some sort of logic there but blowed if I can find it.
• VicRoads are yet to complete their final testing but he intimated it will be in the next week or two. We will be notified when they have the final results.
• As part of their testing I asked for two things 1) that the installation be checked by the manufacturer of the new barriers to ensure the work was done properly, and 2) that they go along the length of the barrier and elimininate any gaps in the old barrier. He agreed to 1 and was non-committal on 2. He gave the impression that there may be problems with the old barrier because of its age, which they wouldn't fix.
• The upshot is that if as a result of their testing they find that there was no change in noise levels, then things stay as they are. If they find that there has been an increase then they could remove the new barriers and just leave the old ones (in a worse condition than they were originally, I would think)
• He said that experts agree that vegitation would make little difference to the noise levels and most that was removed was on the freeway side.
• He apologised for the large gaps left while work was in progress resulting in dogs getting onto the freeway side. This should not have happened.
• A response to our petition has been drafted and is currently being checked. Everyone who signed the letter will be sent a copy but I got the impression it won't really say anything positive for us.

The overall impression I got from the conversation is that we should not hope for any real improvement and that we should be grateful we were thrown these crumbs, which ended up being a dirty great cowpat. I think my next step is to contact our local state member, Michael O'Brien, and invite him to hear the noise for himself and to complain about what I consider to be the utter contempt that VicRoads has shown for the residents.

Received 3 more signed letters yesterday evening. Sent them to usual suspects this morning as PDFs in emails. This time I asked for delivery receipts to make sure the emails got through. Got a received receipt from Barbara Forrester at VicRoads. It turns out she is the Office Manager for the CEO's office at VicRoads. Searched the internet for her phone number and gave her a call. She confirmed that she had received my 2 emails and one letter and she promised that someone would ring me on Monday. Hopefully this may be a sign of some progress but with VicRoads recent history of non-activity who knows?

Sent hardcopy of email and resident letters to Gary Liddle by post in case email is sitting in a junk mailbox somewhere. Also sent a copy of the email to the project manager, David Smith.

Sent copies of the signed letters in a PDF to Gary Liddle at VicRoads with cc's to Michael O'Brien (state member) and Kelly O'Dwyer (federal member).

15 returns of the letter so far - would be nice to have a few more. Plan to scan them into a PDF document and  send them to Gary Liddle early next week.

Decided to petition the CEO of VicRoads, Gary Liddle. Distributed letter (see below) for Gary Liddle to local residents for their signature. 

Gary Liddle

Chief Executive

VicRoads

Ref: Monash Freeway Noise Barrier Upgrade – East Malvern

Dear Mr Liddle,

Recently VicRoads completed an upgrade of the noise barriers along the Monash Freeway either side of Winton Road in East Malvern.

When work commenced I was expecting the result to be a reduction in the excessive traffic noise from the freeway.  Now that the project has been completed there has been no reduction in noise levels.  But instead, the noise is even worse and more intrusive than before.

It is my understanding that the work was a trial of new technology.  Why were existing methods, which have proven effective in other areas, not used?  This would have ensured maximum benefit to the residents.

Also, the standard of the work is unacceptable as numerous gaps have been left under the barriers and between panels where they were removed and replaced during the upgrade.

With the amount of public money that has been spent, we have every right to expect an improvement in the situation rather than a degradation.

The impact on local residents lives is significant and I request that VicRoads as a matter of urgency take steps to reduce the noise to an acceptable level.

I look forward to your prompt attention.

Yours sincerely

................................................................................................................ Signature

................................................................................................................ Name

................................................................................................................ Address

..............................................................................................

................................................................................................................ Date

Received acknowledgment from Michael O'Brien of my email. Said he would forward it onto the Transport Minister. I take this to mean I will not hear anything else about it.

Sent letter to local state MP, Michael O'Brien complaining about the noise.

Contacted VicRoads again. This time Spoke to Eric and asked why the work promised by David Smith on 23/10 had not been done. Told him I wanted to escalate the issue and asked who I should contact. He replied that he cannot give out names or contact details of VicRoads staff. How is one supposed to get anything done if they won't tell you who to contact.Maybe that's the point. They figure that the more they stonewall the more fed up the customer will become and go away and leave them in peace. Not this little black duck! After a bit of an argument he did give me David Smith's email address. At this stage I think the next point of call should be higher up the food chain. Will go straight to the top.

Ref # 500506790

Checked whether promised work to blocking of gaps beneath barriers had been done. It had not.

Contacted VicRoads again. This time I spoke to David in Road and Traffic Management customer service. He was much more sympathetic to the situation than Sat and promised to pass on my concerns to the project manager for the works carried out. 30 minutes later the project manager, David Smith, rang me. The major points that came out of the conversation were

1. The work had been finished so there was not really anythin he could do
2. That the new barriers they put up should be most effective in reducing noise over short distances. He didn't have an answer when I told him that my unit is about 10-20 metres away and the noise had increased
3. He also didn't have an answer when I pointed out that gaps had been left under the barriers and in between panels. He promised me that the contractors would be out that weekend to put more earth and mulch at the bottom of the barriers. I am surprised that they work weekends. He mentioned nothing about fixing the gaps in the barriers.

Ref # 500503666

Contacted VicRoads to complain about the increased noise since the barriers were upgraded. Spoke with customer services person (Sat) in Road and Traffic Management. He was no help whatsoever and he more or less had the attitude that since VicRoads had upgraded the noise barriers, the noise levels must have reduced - QED. One thing he did do though, was say he would organise sound testing to be conducted near my place.

Ref #500502540