The Melbourne Airport Rail project might be “paused” but it has already left a trail of destruction across Sunshine. Today’s example is the Sunshine to Tottenham shared path.
The works notice that never was
The first sign of what was to come was posted on the Facebook page of local state MP Sarah Connolly, who posted a copy of a Melbourne Airport Rail works notice.
It advised that shared path between Sunshine station and Matthews Street in Station would be closed from January 16 until April 30, with a detour via Station Place and Drayton Street.
Signage soon appeared at Sunshine station telling motorists that a few parking spaces would be closed.
But nothing appeared beside the shared path.
Until January 20, when a fence suddenly appeared across the path at Sunshine station.
And a ‘footpath closed’ sign across the Matthews Street end of the path.
But still no signage from the Melbourne Airport Rail project regarding the path closure – just one abut the removal of trees.
Work starts
February saw the excavators roll in, installing new signalling and power conduit along the railway line.
Dumping spoil next to Matthews Hill.
But by March 2023 the new conduits had been installed, and work was underway to restore the shared path to its previous state.
The fencing along the railway line back in place, ready for the promised April 2023 reopening.
And a second closure
Turns out out the April 30 reopening date was a lie – the Melbourne Airport Rail project finally put up a works notice beside the closed shared path, with an updated ’30 June 2023′ reopening date.
The shared path now being used as an access point to thenew station concourse that the Melbourne Airport Rail project was due to deliver at Sunshine station.
The trees cleared between the broad and standard gauge tracks were removed.
And the ground levelled out.
A piling rig was hard at work on the foundations at the end of platform 2.
And in May it was joined by a second piling rig working on an extension of platform 1.
Then on May 17 a bombshell:
Hundreds of tradespeople will be seconded to other projects after the Andrews government confirmed Melbourne Airport Rail Link construction would be paused, awaiting the results of a major Commonwealth review of the country’s infrastructure pipeline.
Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan on Wednesday ended weeks of speculation about the future of the long-awaited rail line, saying works would be temporarily halted on the $13 billion Airport Rail Link.
“States [were] informed that no new contracts to progress works can be entered into during the review period, without express permission of the Commonwealth government,” Allan said in a statement.
“That means projects that are moving from early works packages cannot move to the next phase of works for the review period”
A few days later, the piling rigs at Sunshine station had been packed up and taken away.
Leaving a row of completed concrete piles.
But it gets worse
Despite work on Melbourne Airport Rail having wrapped up, the Sunshine-Tottenham shared path was still fenced off, hidden behind a pile of abandoned construction materials.
And then in early June the shared path detour via Station Place was itself closed – so that stormwater pipes leading to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Primary School could be upgraded.
So sick of waiting for the proper path to reopen, someone decided to take matters into their own hands and busted open the fence.
Revealing the mess that the Melbourne Airport Rail project left behind.
Gravel covering the concrete surface.
Bits of fence missing between the path and the rail corridor.
And the concrete surface cracked from heavy vehicles driving over it.
And a reopening
The first sign of an official reopening was relocation of the temporary fencing away from the path.
And a Brimbank City Council contractor planting new trees along the shared path.
A John Holland work crew then placing crash barriers along the damaged sections of path.
Covering the gravel that littered the concrete.
The concrete broken by heavy vehicles.
Mudholes beside the path created by careless drivers.
And replacing fences destroyed by excavators.
So what will happen first – restoration of the shared path to original condition, resumption of work on Melbourne Airport Rail, or the entire project being cancelled?
My money is on cancellation, making it a problem for future generations, at an even greater cost.
Marcus, what a depressing read, and I fear that Andrew is correct (although I have very little money left to put on it). Melbourne is already a problem with no planning, no commitment, and uncoordinated development, and it will become a nightmare.
The main problem is a lack of continuity between governments of different parties, like if a project was planned under Labor then the Liberals would cancel it and vice versa. It is this lack of continuity between governments that has caused problems in regards to planning, commitment as well as coordination when it comes to development. This is not just happening in Victoria, but throughout the world.
We need to fix these problems, but no doubt the media has contributed to this problem through the picking of winners, and calls for taxes to be cut (most notably payroll and land) which is often detrimental to the provision of services (such as public transport or education, which experiences cuts to services when taxes are cut).
I feel that we need better coordination between both Labor and Liberals (as well as minor parties) when it comes to projects like the Metro Tunnel or the Suburban Rail Loop or the Airport Rail (which will take cars off the road) and not rebadge everything when a new government comes into power which is a total waste of money.
But Airport Rail has been planned and run by Labor all through…and Dan Andrews has been around for a long tine.
At this stage it’s unclear, but due to the amount of resources that seriously went into planning and starting the early works, it’s a bit too far into the project for a full cancellation. It’s more likely there’s going to be a rescope of the project, as done on other projects to reduce costs. MM1 rescoped during the 2020 review cutting some of the signalling and other upgrades, Mildura basin rail project also rescoped their project following a review in 2021 and there was some rescoping on some regional rail revival projects cutting out some duplication out due to keeping on the budget as well.
I wonder what scope could be cut from airport rail – East Keilor station and the junctions around Sunshine are the only ones that come to mind.
I wonder if a new station at the Airport could be underground, using the tunnel boring machines now on the North East Link. If the diameter were like the Eastlink tunnels they would have an internal diameter of 14m, which would be plenty for a train (5m) and platform (9m). A station with 2 parallel wide bore tunnels for 2 platforms and an approach with a single wide-bore tunnel could all be built for about 1.2km of tunnelling.
Given the land use around the airport terminals is mostly car parking, I’d assume cut and cover tunnelling would be a cheaper option.
[…] But as you might have guessed, the Melbourne Rail Link project went nowhere, construction of the Metro Tunnel started a few years later and is almost finished, and work on the Melbourne Airport Rail project has been stop-start. […]