One rural road is "not designed to handle" the 45 heavy vehicles that will travel through Glenellen daily for a solar farm's construction, according to council's engineering director.
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And one councillor has expressed serious concerns about the overall impact on traffic of the two proposals in the area.
Greater Hume Council has made a submission to the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, raising "serious concerns" about traffic management.
While traffic is proposed to avoid Jindera, instead taking Olympic Highway, the potential of up to 100 truck movements during peak times on the five-to-seven-metre-wide Glenellen Road has concerned Greg Blackie.
"I'd say this development is not proposing to do a lot of upgrades on roads, their expectation is they can get directly to the site with not much work, which I disagree with," he told councillors this week.
"There's clearly some upgrades that need to be done to handle the traffic that's involved in this.
"Even though it's a B-Double-gazetted route, it hasn't [currently] got the traffic volume of heavy vehicles that's going to occur with this development.
"I believe their traffic consultants have simply based it [their advice] upon information that they believe it's an approved route, so it should be adequate."
TTM Consulting said in a traffic survey the Glenellen Solar Farm proposes to utilise around 5000 heavy and light vehicles over a construction period of approximately 12 to 18 months.
"Based on the current proposed schedule, the average daily movements will include up to 45 trucks," the report said.
"If the Jindera Solar Farm and Glenellen Solar Farm were being constructed at the same time, the potential cumulative traffic impacts would be on Glenellen Road and Walla Walla Jindera Road."
While the construction traffic is not proposed to go through Jindera for the Glenellen farm, it would for the nearby Jindera project.
For the Jindera Solar Farm, the proposed route Hume Highway, Thurgoona Drive, Catherine Crescent, Dallinger Road, Union Road, Wagga Road, Urana Road, Urana Street and Urana Road.
The DPIE assessment report flags an 18-month construction period, in which movements would peak over six months - that's when there would be 30 daily truck movements on the above-mentioned route.
The DPIE has set out in its recommended conditions of consent for the Jindera project, which is also currently before the IPC, that the development should not generate more than:
- 30 heavy vehicle movements a day during construction, upgrading and decommissioning;
- 5 over-dimensional vehicle movements during construction, upgrading and decommissioning; and
- 5 heavy vehicle movements a day during operations
Councillor Jenny O'Neill is concerned about the possibility of increased traffic through the Jindera township.
"If we're going to have all these extra trucks and vehicles coming through, it's going to be an accident waiting to happen," she said.
Cr O'Neill also objected to the Glenellen project specifically.
"There are 84 people being affected by this development; some will also then be affected by the Jindera development," she said.
"They have the right to be living where they thought [they would be]; in a lovely rural setting, and not to be facing this industrial expanse of solar panels."
Cr Tony Quinn said the council's official objections to the three previous solar development proposals were "arrogant".
"We're hanging it on the fact we've got to preserve good agricultural country," he said.
"Jindera is expanding all the time, using good agricultural country for housing.
"It's what you call moving forward, action."
Cr O'Neill's motion to object to the Glenellen project was lost; instead a motion put forward by Cr Quinn to raise "serious concerns" about traffic was passed.
Deputy mayor Doug Meyer, who presented to the Independent Planning Commission about his concerns for the Walla Walla Solar Farm, also sought to have council's submission object, but was unsuccessful.
"In the last fortnight ... we've seen sales of $5500 an acre, not per hectare," he said.
"Those prices haven't been reached ever before in this shire.
"That means it is high quality agricultural land. The point should be left in there."
With Greater Hume Council raising concerns, rather than formally objecting, to the 200 megawatt Glenellen project, it will not automatically go to the IPC for determination.
IN OTHER NEWS:
But it is most likely the Glenellen project will join the three other proposals in being referred to the IPC anyway, as the trigger is more than 30 objecting submissions.
Members of the public can make submissions to the NSW DPIE on the Glenellen Solar Farm until the end of November.
The Walla and Jindera solar farms are with the IPC for determination.