The Batman Bridge, about 5kms upstream from the mill. Much of the extra traffic will cross here.
About 2.5 million tonnes are transported to Longreach every year mainly by road.
Gunns Ltd: 'About 2.5 million tonnes of logs have been sourced for the Gunns Bell Bay mills every year'.
The leaflet also goes on to say that combined with other industries, about 3 million tonnes are transported to Bell Bay every year.
Gunns Ltd: 'It is expected that Bell Bay Pulp mill would initially need about 3 million tonnes'.
Gunns Ltd latest shareholder report: 'Designed production capacity in the range of 820,000 to 1,000,000 tonnes of pulp'
4 tonnes of wood are needed to produce one tonne of paper pulp. So the input will be between 3.3 and 4.0 million tonnes of wood. If you spend over a billion dollars, you want to get your money back ASAP so expect it to be run at close to full capacity as quickly as possible. A similar size pulp mill just opened in Veracel, Brazil, requires 250 log trucks a day to feed it. Added to that is the wood for the power station and all the chemicals and materials.
Gunns Ltd: 'Any extra wood brought into the area from catchments in the North-West or the South would be most likely brought in by train'.
Comment: This is a statement written to make you think extra wood will be brought in by train but that is not what is says. Only extra wood sourced from the south or north-west would be brought in by train. As woodchip exports from Longreach are likely to continue (and if this was sourced from other areas they would be processed at Triabunna or Hampshire not sent all the way to Longreach by train), then it is reasonable to assume that Gunns Ltd expect to be able to supply the pulpmill from the north and north-east and it will therefore be delivered by road.
Gunns proposal to Federal minister: 'Approximately 500,000 green tonnes of bark, fines, sawdust, wood waste and other forest residues may be burnt to supply steam and power for the pulp mill.'
Gunns Ltd in answer to claims of job losses at Burnie and Triabunna mills:
'The Bell Bay site was selected for a number of reasons, including the existing
wood supply in the North-East area. It is not expected that there will
be any impact on forest related jobs in this state'.
Comment: It's difficult to work out exactly what they are saying here. A bit of a fudge, isn't it? Even so, it looks as though most the wood will be sourced from the North-East and therefore brought in by road. Let's do the sums - say a conservative 3.5+0.5 (for the green wood for the power plant)=4.0 That's 1.6 more than 2.5 or a 60% increase in log traffic. And that's assuming that that all exports of chips from the Longreach chip mills will stop - something Gunns Ltd have refused to confirm. In fact, their latest project scope includes a new wharf for exporting paper pulp instead of using the existing one. Gunns Ltd may well continue to export chips as well. Truck movements could well double.
The Northern Tasmanian Development Group study tour in March 2006 reported that 'heavy vehicle traffic had caused concern in small towns in Germany'. 'The current infrastructure is inadequate to cope with the current heavy vehicle load and any increase will put the system under more pressure' said Doug Ling from the RACT.
In the 2006 Federal budget, $60m. has been allocated to upgrade the East Tamar Highway which runs from Launceston to George Town , the port of Bell Bay and the mill site at Longreach. This is very welcome except that if the work takes place at the same time as the water pipeline construction and the mill construction then residents of the East Tamar can look forward to traffic delays and disruption for up to two years! If the mill does go ahead then the Batman, West Tamar and Frankford highways will need upgrading as well as they are of much lower standard than the East Tamar Highway and are already clogged with heavy traffic.
A log truck on the Batman highway.
Gunns Proposal to RPDC: ' Transport related impacts, including any increase in noise, pollution, safety and general amenity along main log and product transport routes will be assessed.'
Gunns Ltd: 'Little - if any - change in log truck movements'.
Comment: Please explain.
IIS: According to the Hobart Mercury on 19/7/06, the IIS predicts that there will be a massive increase in log-truck traffic across Tasmania and this will lead to increased fatalities. There will be a 40% increase in log trucks on the East Tamar Highway and 492 trucks a day on the Tamar Valley Wine Route. During construction there would be an extra 1035 vehicles a day on the East Tamar Highway, 630m. queues at the pulp mill turn off and a 3 minute delay. (The map that shows the route of the water and effluent pipelines shows them crossing the highway several times so expect more delays there as well.) All this and $60m. worth of improvement road works as well. The IIS compares traffic levels not with present levels but with traffic that will occur if the mill does not proceed but wood chip exports continue to expand but concludes that service levels would be adequate. Comment: The RACT representative said in the NTD report that the current infrastructure was inadequate for the current load. According to the Examiner on 9/8/2006, the current number of log trucks per day at Longreach is 260 although apparently Gunns will not divulge the exact number. This according to the IIS is how the numbers will alter:To start with assuming 25% by train Current 260 Total trucks per day 439 increase 68% Working up to assuming 25% by train Current 260 Total trucks per day 497 increase 91% or... To start with assuming nil by train Current 260 Total trucks per day 469 increase 80% Working up to assuming nil by train Current 260 Total trucks per day 606 increase 130%Comment: The IIS says clearly that, to start with, 90% of the wood will come from the North East and so will come in by truck. So it definitely will not be 25% by train. There will be 78 trucks a day delivering the wood fuel for the power. The Beca AMEC peer review says that Gunns have used as their baseline a scenario of 7m.tonnes of wood chips being exported and no trains being utilised and that is totally unrealistic. Last year only 3.5m.tonnes of woodchips were sold. The Launceston Chamber of Commerce say in their submission to the RPDC that (whilst they support the project) not enough thought has gone into the traffic situation on the East Tamar Highway when the pulp mill is being built and the road upgrades are being done. They also are worried by the effect on tourists that 'thundering' log trucks will have. It has been announced that Alinta propose to build a new power station at Bell Bay and the construction of this will involve 300 workers. This will be at the same time that the mill is going to be constructed. A report on the safety of log trucks is rumoured to say that at present they are overloaded by a third and should be restricted to 80kph. This will alter everything including freight costs. This report needs to be released by the Tasmanian Government so that the effects can be calculated. A report on truck safety commissioned by the Greens released on 14/11/2006 says that 100% of Tasmanian log trucks are dangerously overloaded. The Government have not released their findings yet.
Are log trucks overloaded at present? A log truck on the Batman Highway:
Site with pictures of log truck accidents
VERDICT: The proponents statement that the mill would make little difference to the volume of heavy goods vehicles on the roads was misleading as it assumed that all 7 million tonnes harvested would be sold. Only 3.5mt was sold in 2005/2006. It follows that mill will nearly double log traffic (allowing 10% by train) from the present level and there will also be trucks bringing in the wood for the power station, and also chemical trucks for the mill itself.
Note: Hampshire has the largest wood chip mill in the southern hemisphere and is close to massive wood supply catchments and has existing designated log truck routes and a rail connection.
