‘Wall of sound’ cops a blast

By Melissa Grant
A PAKENHAM man is angry after discovering his house in Blue Horizons Estate won’t be protected by noise barriers despite its short distance from the Pakenham Bypass.
Simon Helps is livid that noise barriers to reduce the amount of noise from passing vehicles along the new freeway won’t be erected near the new estate off McGregor Road.
Mr Helps said he was frustrated that VicRoads had erected barriers near farmland on Henry Road but weren’t planning to build any to protect some of Pakenham’s more populated areas.
“They’ve built a nice barrier on Henry Road to protect one house, but there’s not going to be any barriers near the Blue Horizons estate,” he said.
Pakenham Bypass acting project manager Ian Inglis said the bypass includes about 2.5 kilometres of noise barriers near Henry Road and Ryan Road, where development took place before the freeway reservation was established in 1983.
Mr Inglis said that houses built after 1983 weren’t entitled to protection from noise barriers.
“Dwellings that obtained building approval after this time did so in the knowledge that a bypass reservation was in place, and that a freeway would be constructed in that reservation,” he said.
Mr Helps said he was bewildered by VicRoads’ decision not to provide noise barriers to houses built in the area during the last 24 years.
“When we built our house we saw the freeway as an added bonus,” he said.
“Their (VicRoads) position is that our house was there after 1983 and that we knew there was going to be a bypass.
“We were working on the assumption that when they build freeways they build noise barriers.”
Mr Helps said his request for noise barriers was quite reasonable and believed that residents living in the Blue Horizons Estate were entitled to some form of protection against noise from traffic passing along the new freeway.
“We’re not asking for 10ft barriers,” he said.
“They probably made some allocations but are seeing if they can get away with it.
“It’s penny pinching at the end of the day.”
Widely regarded as the harbinger of a period of enormous growth and prosperity for Pakenham, the $242 million bypass is a project jointly funded by the State and Federal Governments.
The 20-kilometre bypass from Beaconsfield to Nar Nar Goon will complete the last missing link in the freeway network connecting Melbourne and Gippsland.
Federal Roads Minister Jim Lloyd said when turning the first sod in 2005 that the bypass would be a catalyst for renewed growth and development of Pakenham as a true regional centre serving the south eastern corridor.
The project is on target for completion later this year.