News

The Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources (DIER) will begin preliminary work on Wednesday (13 April 2011), in the vicinity of the Jordan River crossing section of the Brighton Bypass.

Mr Norm McIlfatrick, Secretary - DIER, released the following information today (Tuesday 12 April 2011):

A 70-metre bridge will span the significant archaeological levee site, so that its Aboriginal heritage values are not disturbed.

The final approval required before work can begin was the signing of the Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP) by the Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage, Brian Wightman.

DIER Secretary, Norm McIlfatrick, said today that now the CEMP had been approved, DIER had a legal right to begin construction of the Jordan River crossing.

"The CEMP outlines how bridge, road and associated construction is proposed to proceed on site," Mr McIlfatrick said.

"This should provide assurance to the Aboriginal and broader community that DIER can build the legally approved bridge with no impact on the Jordan River levee and minimum impact on the broader area around it.

"Early tasks will include the construction of a temporary access track, the installation of temporary fencing, excavation of geotechnical pits, clearing of vegetation and some service relocations.

"DIER has also modified the approach to construction so that no heavy machinery will be required to move onto the levee itself.

"The bridge components will be launched from outside the levee and above it, rather than lifted from underneath.

"Because we are not allowing heavy machinery onto or across the levee, a temporary crossing and crane platform will be required to provide access to the area between the Jordan River and the levee so that the bridge piers can be constructed," he said.

Mr McIlfatrick said that DIER acknowledged that some members of the Aboriginal community had advised that they may protest when construction work begins.

"While DIER respects the right of people to protest, it also has a duty of care to ensure that its contractors and the general public are provided with a safe environment," Mr McIlfatrick said.

"We have therefore allocated a temporary visitors' area that, although fenced, will allow for observation of construction work and enable visits to part of the Jordan River levee by foot traffic only.

"It is important that those visiting the site respect these limitations so that nobody's safety is put at risk.

"By controlling access, DIER can also ensure that the levee is not inadvertently disturbed by others.

"Key project managers and contractors have undertaken cultural awareness training to better understand the cultural sensitivities associated with this project," he said.

Mr McIlfatrick said that DIER continued to acknowledge that the levee contained important cultural heritage material and agreed that it should not be disturbed.

"DIER and its contractors have employed innovative and costly techniques to enable the construction of the Jordan River crossing without physically impacting on the levee.

"All the options put forward by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre have been thoroughly investigated by the State and Australian Governments and none have been found to be practical or feasible.

"The bottom line is that we have no more options.

"We either build the bridge as proposed, which will not disturb the levee, or we not build the road.

"That would mean that we would not see any of the benefits of bringing this section of the highway up to national standard and that lives would  continue to be endangered on one of  the busiest parts of our road network."

A copy of the Construction Environmental Management Plan is available on DIER's website:

click here

For more related information on the project:

click here