M2 Motorway and the local community

RTA projects are designed and undertaken with a strong commitment to local communities. The M2 Motorway Project development process included extensive community consultation. This ensured that needs identified by the local community became a part of the RTA’s project goals. Identified needs included accessibility, quality of life and environmental protections. The RTA worked hard to keep local communities informed during all stages of the project and to ensure that any adverse impacts resulting from the project were minimised.

Consulting local communities

The RTA is committed to ensuring that local communities are meaningfully involved before and during construction. The consultation process with the communities affected by the M2 Motorway Project included:

• Meeting with the residents within the motorway catchment area to explain the M2 Motorway Project.
• Requests for community input via feedback facilities such as phone calls and written correspondence.
• Establishing five local liaison groups, three school liaison groups, two indigenous liaison groups and a cyclist liaison group. These groups had direct communication with the RTA and construction project management.
• Incorporating feedback from liaison groups. Following suggestions or comments by the community, many details of the project were changed and additional features were included. 

Bringing benefits to local community

The RTA strives to ensure that its projects benefit local communities. Benefits of the M2 Motorway Project include: 

• Less traffic on local and nearby arterial roads.
• An enhanced strategic road network in Sydney’s north-west to support economic growth.
• Improved local road safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
• Improved bus travel times and reliability. 

Addressing the concerns of local community

The RTA planning and construction process included several measures to minimise the impact of the M2 Motorway’s construction on the community. These measures included the following.

Keeping local community informed

The RTA ensured that local communities were provided with relevant and timely information before and during construction. Measures taken before and during the construction of the M2 Motorway Project included:

• Notifying the public regularly about project developments via brochures, letterbox drops and local advertising and media.
• The provision of a full time community liaison manager.
• Establishing a permanently staffed information centre on site for the duration of the project.
• Maintaining a 24 hour telephone hotline for community complaints or enquiries.
• Arranging community walks to show the extent of the construction works.

Noise minimisation

The RTA took the following measures to minimise the impact of construction and operation noise on the local community:

• Preliminary investigation on the potential impact of construction related noise. Noise and vibration sensitive receivers were positioned within close proximity to the M2 Motorway corridor at residential and commercial premises including schools, recreational areas and places of worship.
• Training workers and contractors to use equipment in ways that minimised noise – for example not reversing where possible to avoid noise from machinery reversing beepers.
• Asking staff to avoid -
  • The use of radios or stereos outdoors where neighbours could be affected.
  • The overuse of public address systems.
  • Shouting and slamming vehicle doors.
  • Dropping materials from a height.
  • Metal-to-metal contact with tools, vehicles and materials.
  • Scheduling truck movements to avoid residential streets if possible.

The community was notified about all major construction activities and respite periods were scheduled so that there was minimal disruption.

Preserving access

Local community concerns about access were addressed by:

• Minimising disruption of access to properties and businesses.
• Establishing a dedicated area for holding site machinery and vehicles.
• Advising the community in advance of any instance where it was necessary for trucks, equipment and other vehicles to use local streets to access the construction site.
• Avoiding disruption to schools and any other high pedestrian areas wherever possible.

If there was any need to access the construction corridor through private property, this was negotiated with the individual landowner.