The Butler Street Community Network, a group campaigning against the Byron Shire Council’s adopted Butler Street bypass route, has gained access to documents detailing the approved 2001 Bypass Environmental Impact Study (EIS).
This 2001 route placed the bypass on the rail corridor with a further connection to Kendall Street via the Byron Street road reserve.
President and spokesperson for the community group, architect Paul Jones, said, ‘The approved 2001 study and plans come as quite a surprise as the findings represent fundamentally the same conclusions we came to in our Stage 1 and Stage 2 “Grab The Rail” bypass proposal.’
According to the group, the 2001 approvals stand in clear contradiction to the claims by Council and local MP Don Page that the rail corridor was not wide enough to accommodate a road bypass alongside the railway line. In 2001 the railway was still operational and the bypass approval was in full consultation with State Rail.
The Butler Street group said it made several attempts, including a ministerial letter, to get clarification from Council’s general manager Ken Gainger on the issue of the corridor width. However, a recent communication from Mr Page notified council, councillors and the community that, ‘The rail corridor at Byron Bay will not accommodate the existing rail track in addition to a two-lane road and a rail trail. It is not wide enough according to Mr Terry Brady, general manager, Country Rail Contracts, Transport for NSW.’
Attempts by The Echo and the Butler Street Group to seek further clarification of this advice from Mr Brady have been unsuccessful.
‘What is most disappointing in all of this,’ said Mr Jones, ‘is that our councillors have been misled into believing the that the rail corridor was unsuitable for a bypass road and subsequently voted down our submission for the rail corridor to be considered as an alternative route for the bypass.
‘Clearly the 2001 EIS which detailed engineering drawings, costing and a full matrix of impacts and benefits with over eight route alternatives examined stands as a significant precedent. The planned bypass allowed for an ultimate four-lane road including operational railway line. The study demonstrates that locating the bypass road on the rail corridor is not only feasible but also the preferred alternative, minimising environmental impacts and cheaper to build than the Butler Street option the council has currently resolved to pursue.
Bypass template
‘Council has now commissioned its consultants GHD to undertake new investigations and design of the bypass. The 2001 EIS stands as a readymade template for this exercise as little has changed to negate the original findings other than we now have a non-operational railway line and the possible inclusion of a maximum three-metre wide rail trail.
‘The Butler Street Community Network has now called again on council to include the rail corridor route in the new investigations including the Kendall Street link and Cemetery Road link.
‘If council continues to refuse our requests for inclusion of the rail corridor alternative, we demand to know why: why Don Page and his advisers have directed against the 2001 Bypass EIS findings and the details upon which they base their claims.’
You can view the 2001 bypass EIS at www.byron.nsw.gov.au/projects/byron-bay-bypass.
I agree with the Butler St Community Network.
The Byron Bay bypass should be a true and proper bypass of the town such as we have in Lennox Head. The traffic along Ewingsdale Rd/Shirley St is a travesty during holiday season.
There’s not much point in doing a mini bypass either as the town in now so overloaded that a full bypass is warranted.
If the council chooses the railway corridor then so be it but they are very short sighted.
Come March 2015, there will be a new representative of the Ballina electorate and perhaps the Butler St Community Network should ask both Paul Spooner (Labour)and Kris Beavis (Nationals) what their preferred option is and make it a full election issue.
Bypass schmypass . . . most of the traffic coming in from Ewingsdale is going to the beach – not south through Byron. Wrong solution for the wrong problem.