The Guardian 5 April, 2006
Tunnel vision a public danger
Peter Mac
Sydney residents’ road tunnel nightmares have surfaced again. This time it’s the M5, which runs for several kilometres through the inner southern suburbs.
Unlike the Cross-City Tunnel, the M5 is a freeway, and has been highly effective as a vehicle transport route. However, when it was built the State Government decided that it simply could not afford to filter the exhaust fumes from the tunnel.
As a result, huge amounts of highly noxious gases accumulate in the tunnel and are then discharged through exhaust stacks and into the adjacent suburbs. The government only requires monitoring of carbon monoxide levels in the tunnel. The presence of other highly toxic pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, benzene and fine particles, is not measured.
Moreover, individual complaints of damage to health are only acted upon if the complainant can prove they were present for at least 15 minutes in the tunnel, during a period of high levels of carbon monoxide.
Last week the Minister for Roads, Eric Roozendaal, stamped around the State Parliament debating chamber, shouting that "Not a single motorist who has been through the M5 East Tunnel has had his or her health put in jeopardy".
In answer to an opposition MPs’ claim that the tunnel posed a danger to public health, he declared: "I challenge the honourable member to produce some of these cases. Where are they? They do not exist because he made them up."
However, documents sought by Greens MPs since 2002, which concern the tunnel’s operations since it was opened, have at last been released after a prolonged court case. They reveal hundreds of cases of complaints from motorists and tunnel operating staff about pollution in the tunnel, as well as complaints from residents who live near the tunnels exhaust stacks.
As early as 2002, the Roads and Traffic authority received some 240 complaints by motorists about asthma, coughing, stinging eyes and nausea. In the same year residents complained of "a terrible smell like kerosene and chemicals". Later on, tunnel operational staff complained about headaches, dizziness and nausea. One motorist complained that he could hardly breathe and had almost passed out after driving through the tunnel.
The documents also reveal that while Iemma was Minister for Health he failed to act on advice from his own department that the RTA should advise motorists to wind up their windows and turn their air conditioning to "recycle" while in the tunnel.
The Government’s only response was to produce a pamphlet, which does not appear to have been distributed. Greens MP Lee Rhiannon commented: "I think the Minister needs to reconsider his position".