Significant adjustments to rail access are included among a number of changes in the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal’s final environmental impact statement, released earlier this month.
Overall volumes remain the same in the final version of the report compared to earlier versions – 1.05 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for import/export (IMEX) freight, and 500,000 TEUs for inter-state containerised freight – but the respective locations of those parts of the terminals have been changed around.
The terminal’s IMEX component will now be located along the southern section of the project site, adjacent to Moorebank Avenue.
The interstate terminal will now be located along the eastern section of the project site, also adjacent to Moorebank Avenue.
Warehousing, up to 300,000 square metres, moves from the eastern to the western side of the site, next to a dedicated access road.
Rail access has changed significantly, in that the project will now be connected to the Southern Sydney Freight Line by a southern access point. Northern and central rail access options will not be considered any further.
Roadworks will be carried out to create a new Moorebank Avenue / Anzac Road intersection via the M5 motorway, which will create vehicular access to the site. Meanwhile, modification of the M5 motorway intersection, with widening and upgrading of Moorebank Avenue to the new intersection will take place.
A conservation area alongside the Georges River on the western side of the project site will be increased by four hectares in the northern part of the conservation zone.
Two parallel planning processes – the Commonwealth and the State – are currently running. Planning approvals are still being sought from the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment who will give a final federal decision. However, there may still some way to go in the State planning process.
Development of an intermodal terminal has been considered for some time – at least from September 2004 when the then Federal government announced it would consider the development of a site at Moorebank. The need for the project is based on a variety of growth and bottle-neck projections.
Continued growth is forecast for containerised import export freight, with growth averaging 7% annual over the last 15 years and growth is forecast by the Federal Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE 2020) to be an annual compound growth rate of 4.25% until 2030.
Meanwhile, the EIS repeats concerns that there is a need to ease a “bottleneck” of containerised freight at Port Botany: “to cope with future growth in containerised freight, more freight needs to be moved to and from Port Botany by rail”.
Also driving the need for expansion is forecast demographic change within Sydney as the population – and therefore the ultimate demand for freight deliveries to the ultimate consignee – moves out to the west and south-west of Sydney.
“The Moorebank IMT would handle a significant proportion of the expected growth in containerised IMEX and interstate freight moving through Sydney,” the EIS states.
“As the Project would enable more containerised freight to be moved by rail, it would respond to Sydney’s need for more freight handling capacity without the limitations posed by Sydney’s congested road network.
“The Project is one of a number of IMTs required to manage the increased number of containers expected to come through Port Botany in the long-term.
“The Project site is well located, considering two-thirds of the container freight arriving at Port Botany is bound for western Sydney.
“The railing in of containers from Port Botany to the Project site would assist in reducing regional Sydney traffic congestion, particularly along the M4 Motorway from Port Botany,” it concludes.
This article originally appeared in the February 18 print edition of Rail Express affiliate Lloyd’s List Australia.