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Five trees were supposed to be planted for every one ripped out to make way for the $10 billion West Gate Tunnel, but the project is short thousands of trees and there are no plans to make up the shortfall.
In the City of Melbourne, which includes North and West Melbourne, Kensington and Docklands, 891 trees were removed during the construction of the West Gate Tunnel. The government promised five replacement trees would be planted for each mature tree removed.
However, only 1176 trees have been planted, leaving a shortfall of 2971, according to a West Gate Tunnel impacts report published by the City of Melbourne before its council meeting on Tuesday.
“Due to the high cost of tree planting in urban streets and the limited space available to undertake wide scale planting, it will not be possible to achieve the 5:1 tree replacement commitment within the municipality,” the report states.
The 891 trees removed total about 9000 square metres of canopy cover, and the City of Melbourne has requested funding from the government to deliver an “accelerated tree planting program” in the neighbourhoods most affected by the West Gate Tunnel.
Instead of meeting the 5:1 ratio, the council wants “to focus on replacement canopy cover rather than tree numbers” and double the tree canopy lost from tree removals by 2040.
“This approach will deliver greater benefits to the community and environment than a numbers-based approach,” the report states.
The City of Melbourne’s proposed tree replacement program has been marked as confidential and so is not publicly available.
Lord Mayor Nick Reece was unable to provide a timeline for replanting.
“We know how important shade and greenery are to our local neighbourhoods,” he said. “Focusing on canopy cover will deliver the best outcome for our inner-city streets.”
Analysis by the council also found increased traffic volumes on North and West Melbourne’s arterial road network as a result of the West Gate Tunnel and reduced impact on local streets.
However, in Kensington, the council found “an increase in truck movements within the local streets through Epsom Road and Kensington Road”.
The City of Melbourne will consider asking the government to make some roads 24/7 no-truck zones and has requested speed limit changes.
Reece said the council would not stand by and allow big trucks to use local streets like highways, putting the community at risk.
“The opening of the West Gate Tunnel was accompanied by truck bans on seven roads in the western suburbs. We want to see similar measures taken in the inner city,” he said.
The state government and Melbourne City Council have allocated $100 million to manage the impacts of the tunnel in North Melbourne and West Melbourne through the Transport and Amenity Program (TAP).
All work on TAP projects has been paused until the findings of a six-month monitoring period are published in September, but in the meantime, residents are worried about the failure to plant the promised trees and trucks increasingly rat-running through the area.
Kate Kennedy, chair of the Kensington Association, said she was concerned about the “smoke and mirrors” around the commitment to replant trees.
“There’s definitely not much greenage around the tunnel,” she said. “It’s not a green space.”
Kennedy said the council, state and federal government did not appear to want to take ownership of problems created by the West Gate Tunnel.
“It’s across three tiers of government, and they can all just shove it between the three tiers of government,” she said. “It’s a bit of a shitshow.”
Kensington Business Association president Sean McConville said he was disappointed there had been no effort to deliver on the commitment to replant the trees that had been removed.
“Saying that there’s not enough funds, that’s ridiculous,” said McConville, who owns the Brickville toy store. “They have overspent on everything else.”
McConville said it didn’t seem the City of Melbourne was putting forward any recommendations about improving the amenity of the streets around the West Gate Tunnel, and instead it was focused on “doing the bare minimum”.
“We’re going to have less trees and more trucks that cause environmental problems,” he said. “The biggest issue is that heavy vehicles are avoiding the toll and using Kensington as a bypass.”
McConville said any bans on trucks using certain streets would be “completely ineffective” unless cameras were also installed.
A Victorian government spokesperson said: “The West Gate Tunnel is on track to plant more trees than were removed in the City of Melbourne area, with hundreds already planted – and over 1000 trees to be planted by the end of the year.
“The West Gate Tunnel is slashing travel times and reducing traffic on local streets in suburbs including Footscray, Seddon, Yarraville, Spotswood and Altona North.”
Transurban declined to comment.
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