Zoe Moffatt
A plan to send 400 additional trucks to a Sunbury waste facility in 2030 has left residents concerned about the site’s proposed growth.
Waste management company Hi-Quality Group is proposing to invest in state-of-the-art energy generation and expand its treatment, recovery and reuse solutions at the Sunbury Eco-Hub.
If the proposal is approved, the facility is expected to be fully operational by 2030.
As part of this process, Hi-Quality held community forums throughout February. Information disclosed at a forum last week has left some residents, including Ian Sutherland, concerned about the growth of the facility.
A Hi-Quality spokesperson said modelling for the proposed activities considers approximately 400 additional trucks per day when the facility is fully operational in 2030.
“These movements would be distributed across operational hours, with approximately 8 per cent of these expected to occur during peak times,” they said.
Mr Sutherland was one of about 30 people to attend the forum held last Thursday, February 22, and said the visibility of the trucks concerns him.
“They claim this is about just 1.5 to 2 per cent increase [of anticipated 2031] traffic, but that’s unrealistic in my book,” he said.
“The visibility of the trucks is a concern… [and one of the suggested routes] Bulla Road (turning into Sunbury Road) is very vulnerable and already very congested.
“The facility has a good aim to reduce the landfill growth, but putting it in a populated area brings a threat of contamination, which most normal people would prefer not to see.”
Mr Sutherland said he is concerned that a lot of people in Sunbury don’t know about the proposal.
“The people who I have spoken to are repelled by the large number of trucks going through Sunbury,” he said.
“Coming out of the meeting I felt still confused because I don’t necessarily accept all the background assertions that the facility will meet EPA standards and that still has to be accepted.”
The Hi-Quality spokesperson said they recognise traffic is of interest to residents and have engaged an independent traffic engineer to assess the capacity of the site entrance and local road networks.
“The assessment found that the site’s signalised intersection has the capacity to comfortably accommodate the proposed activities.
“Hi-Quality is proposing to add a separate left turn lane at the site entrance to further prevent any traffic flow issues at the site entrance.
“Hi-Quality also expects that all trucks would be fully covered for safe transport to and from the site as a further safety and environmental control.”
