The existing noise walls alongside City West Link between The Crescent, Annandale and Catherine Street, Lilyfield were constructed in the early 1990s and are showing signs of crushing failure at the angle cleat supports of the lower panels.

To maintain the effectiveness of the noise walls in controlling traffic noise from City West Link, the damaged noise wall panels need to be repaired and/or replaced.

Initial site investigations indicated that approximately 220 trees adjacent to the noise wall would need to be removed to enable this work to be carried out.

In February 2011, Roads and Maritime Services (replacing Roads and Traffic Authority) letter-boxed information to residents in the immediate vicinity of the planned works. This included an invitation to attend a community information session on Saturday 12 March, 2011 to meet the project team, ask questions of the urban design advisor and provide feedback about the species to be replanted.

A community issues report, landscaping plan and project updates are available on the project documents page.

Work to rectify the noise walls alongside City West Link is scheduled to commence on Monday 27 February 2012 and will take approximately fifteen weeks to complete, weather permitting. The majority of this work will be carried out at night however some day work is also planned.

Work will involve:

• Removing trees within one metre of the noise wall to reduce further damage to the Hebel panels.
• Trimming trees to address maintenance and safety issues imposed by overhanging branches, particularly those in the line of sight to road signs.
• Landscaping and replanting with local species, endemic to the area.
• Removing and transporting undamaged noise wall panels to storage.
• Welding new plates and gluing bearing pads to the existing support plates.
• Repairing damaged galvanised surfaces.
• Reinstalling undamaged Hebel panels and replacing damaged panels with new panels.

For more information, please contact Bassem Hijazi, Roads and Maritime Services Project Engineer on (02) 9598 7810 or email Bassem.Hijazi@rms.nsw.gov.au.