Thursday, April 24, 2008

Boulders are Already Falling from the Cliffs of the Alum Mountain

Boulders have been falling from the Alum Mountain's cliffs since around the time of commencement of blasting for the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority's (RTA) Pacific Highway Upgrade at Nerong. (Some ten kilometres south of Bulahdelah.)

When the boulders hit the ground they shatter into fragments. The following photographs are of just some of the boulder fragments and trees which have been struck by falling boulders/fragments.

All bar the last of these photo's were taken in the tourism area at the mountain's summit. The last photograph is of a boulder-fragment damaged tree about a quarter of the way down the road from the top carpark.

And the RTA, knowing that boulders from the Alum Mountain's cliffs can reach the their planned Option E roadway area (ref. the RTA document Geotechnical Issues for Community Information - which was not issued to the community) and having been notified that there have been ongoing boulder falls from the mountain's cliffs since the commencement of blasting some ten kilometres south of Bulahdelah, continues to pursue this insanely dangerous route for the Bulahdelah section of the Pacific Highway Upgrade.

The above tree is about a quarter of the way down the road from the Alum Mountain's summit. Fragments of boulders can travel for that distance and more. Prior to recommending the Option E route to (now former) N.S.W. Minister for Roads, Carl Scully, the RTA had documented 'boulders up to six metres in diameter' in the area of the planned roadway (ref. the abovementioned RTA geotechnical document).

No comments: