As noted by the
Port Kembla Coal Terminal in their Annual Environmental Management Report 2015-16, consent
was given by the NSW Department of Planning to lift the limit of road
haulage of coal to 10 million tonnes per annum. This follows the 2009
consent that lifted the long standing night-time, Sunday and public holiday
curfew to allow coal trucks to move 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a
limit of 7.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
No public
consultation was undertaken by the NSW Department of Planning in
lifting the limit from 7.5 to 10 mtpa. And this at a time when the Mt Ousley
Road is getting more and more congested, and funding has been denied to
construct the long awaited grade separation at the foot of Mt Ousley Road.
Giant A-Double
trucks are now moving some of this coal with 11 or so axles, and a maximum
weight of 72 tonnes. See HERE.
Coal truck
operators are seeking even heavier trucks, claiming that sub-optimal loading is
costing them about $3 million per year.
A good question
is how much would the road wear and tear increase each year if the heavier mass
was approved by the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS)?
A further
question is what are the present hidden subsidies to coal trucking? Back around
1992, based on data from the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) (now RMS), Wollongong
City Council Coal Task Force reckoned it was three cents per tonne kilometre in
unrecovered road system costs.
So for
each million tonnes hauled, the 40 or so km from near Appin to Port
Kembla, has a hidden subsidy of $1.2 million.
With 85 % CPI applied,
this is now $2.2 million for each million tonnes of road hauled coal.
More
information on hidden subsidies to heavy trucks is given in a recent article.
