David McGowan - RANN GOVERNMENT FAILS TO COST RAILYARDS PROJECT FULLY

MILLIONS OF UNCOSTED DOLLARS REQUIRED BEFORE WORK CAN PROPERLY START.

Election Candidates for the Save the RAH Party gathered on site at the corner of North Terrace and WestTerrace on Thurwsday to protest the unfunded cost of cleaning up the railyard site which the Rann Government has ignored in its costings of the proposed Railyards Hospital project.

Drill Core reports of sampling on the Railyards site obtained from PIRSA which holds the records of the former Dept of Mines indicate a soft surface mainly clayey, silt and at 8m a PAH odour – PAH is polyaromatic hydrocarbons a large class of oil products beginning with Benzene. The drilling was terminated at 10m. Other drill holes went to 15m or more and showed a geological consistency. No chemical analysis was done. Chemical analysis was done on the Islington Railyards and the pollutants are likely to be the same and for the same cause – PAH, asbestos, heavy metals from railway operations over 100 years.

Construction on this site will require the removal of the contaminated soil over a 4Ha site – to at least 15m depth both to provide stability for the buildings and for the safety of future occupants.

Two questions arise from this research,
(1) Where will the contaminated soil go?
(2) Will the considerable cost be included in the estimates for the Railyards Hospital BEFORE contracts are issued.
Comparative costs Port Stanvac for the Desalination Plant $200 million
Gillman old MFP $700 million.

Building shortcuts such as laying membrane s and building on them are not successful. Membranes failed in Victoria’s Yarra Tunnel project. Even if successful the weight of the building will squeeze out the contaminants from the underlying soil so they can leach into the Torrens.

The Rann Government has been vocal in its criticism of opposition policies as being uncosted, yet here is a project in which no such allowance for essential work has been costed

David McGowan