Southbank Boulevard woes continue

By Brendan Rees 

Fed-up residents are demanding answers as why the $47m Southbank Boulevard project continues to be plagued by delays with no end in sight.

The works, which will see five new public spaces and neighbourhood parks in the heart of the city’s Arts Precinct, have now slipped 16 months behind schedule.

It has now become Melbourne’s most expensive capital works project – with residents saying they’ve had enough and voicing their frustration over a lack of community consultation.

Construction has been conducted in several stages since works began in July 2018 and was expected to be completed by February last year.

But with the project dragging out by 35 months and no timeline set, residents say they are being left in limbo.

What was originally a three-stage project, then became a five-stage project and recent indications suggest that latest stages have been broken up into sub-categories, providing residents and businessses without any clear timeframe.

According to the council, the project was originally estimated to cost $35m during the early stages of planning before it blew out to $47m.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the council had “learned a lot during this project”, after conceding the project had been beset by delays and disruptions.

She acknowledged the patience of residents and businesses, saying “we know it has taken far longer than expected” but “the finished project will be worth the wait”.

“We have learnt a lot during this project and the next stages are being delivered much more smoothly,” Ms Capp said.

“I understand many locals are frustrated by the ongoing construction so close to their homes but we are building these parks to create a greener, more welcoming space for residents, workers, and visitors.”

“The team has moved on to the next stage of the project that will deliver two neighbourhood parks, creating 2730 sqm of new open space.”

“The first of those parks will be completed in September with the whole stage completed by the end of October.”

“We are committed to reducing inconvenience for locals and have notified those impacted of disruptive works as the project has progressed. We don’t anticipate the need for night works to complete this project.”

“We recently opened the 2200 sqm plaza outside the ABC Centre and have just finished planting 40 new trees in the space in April, bringing the total to 49 for that area.”

Resident Suzzanah Dacre said she was forced to move from her Southbank Boulevard apartment after the noise and dust became overbearing.

“It just got absolutely chaotic with the road shutdowns and the dust and everything like that,” she said.

“It was atrocious the dust. We’ve got two white dogs and no word of a lie … if they went out on the terrace in the morning, they would be grey.”

“We got one notice very early on a few years ago, but that was just a meeting to discuss it and then there was no further information.”

“You’re meant to know an end date of construction and that’s not exactly a big project down there that should have been done.”

Another resident, Dr David Hamilton, who has lived in Southbank for more than 10 years, said the works were “taking forever” despite no construction impacts from COVID.

As first reported in the November 2020 edition of Southbank News, Dr Hamilton said he had continued combing through previous council budgets and public expenditure reports and estimated the project’s cost would blow out to $52.5m.

“The Southbank Boulevard project is an abject failure. It’s a failure of project management, it’s been a failure of design, it’s been a failure of consultation,” he said, adding “there is still no estimate of the cost to complete”.

“We still have quite an area of land which is going to be completed by mid-2021. This is, in fact, probably the areas that residents have been crying out for, namely parks, playgrounds, all the essential elements.”

“What it also brings home is how the council relates to local communities.”

“Would we have the Southbank Boulevard project if five or six years ago we had an effective framework to interact with people who live in the adjoining buildings?”

Saporito Taquito restaurant owner Matthew Defina, whose business is on Kavanagh St, said the works had impacted his trade with two of his parking spaces lost to freight crates on a Friday afternoon earlier this month.

“There’s a big freight crate where they store all their stuff and there’s fences,” he said which restricted customer access. “Every now and then they’ll put up stop signs and that just ruins the whole street.”

Southbank Residents’ Association president Tony Penna said the project was frustrating and that the council was “just hoping for the best” with a completion date.

“What compounds that frustration is the lack of communication. We haven’t been given any clear guidance as to how when it’s likely to be finished,” he said.

Ratepayer’s Victoria president Dean Hurlston said, “Melbourne City Council needs to get off its hands and get this project done.

“If COVID has taught us anything it’s that public open space is directly linked to mental health.”

“It’s typical that the cost of this project reveals how poor councils are in delivering on budget ideas.”

The council’s 2021-22 budget has allocated $3.35m towards the project as well as $5.2m for the Dodd Street linear park development •