Parliament hears bypass noise fury

Jessica Benton
A COMMUNITY campaign against noise from Geelong’s bypass has reached state parliament.
Member for Western Victoria David Koch told parliament about the plight of residents living with 24-hour traffic noise since the completion of the first three stages of the bypass.
Upper House MPs heard that noise from heavy trucks using engine brakes and gear changes all hours of the day and night was causing residents “distress”.
Mr Koch accused the Government of ignoring residents’ complaints because they were from outside Melbourne.
“State Government has allowed the ridiculous situation to occur where Vicroads has agreed to compensate some homes with off-reserve noise limitation measures such as double-glazed windows to limit noise, while others in the same street are forced to endure sleepless nights simply due to the timing of building permits issued in 2002,” Mr Koch told parliament.
Mr Koch demanded that State Roads and Ports Minister Tim Pallas approve installation of noise barriers above pavement levels along stage three of the bypass.
The Independent has reported over the past two months residents’ pleas for improved sound barriers and their signing of a petition demanding bans on trucks using noisy engine-braking.
The petition has attracted over 1000 supporters and will be tabled at the next sitting of parliament by Mr Koch.
State Government has rejected the residents, saying independent noise tests were below predicted levels. However, Vicroads revealed it was compiling a list of “rogue” truckies to ask them to limit their noise on the bypass.
Bypass activist John Lam-bert said it was unfair to label truckies as rogues when Vic-roads was “the culprit”.
“Vicroads putting up advisory signs asking truck drivers to avoid using engine brakes is an unsafe request,” he said.
“The situation we have is that Vicroads has built a facility and created a problem but it’s blaming the truck drivers who are actually being responsible by using their engine brakes.
“Vicroads is totally responsible for this and is totally at fault.
“To have the truck drivers who are being responsible called rogues is appalling – the rogue is Vicroads.”