Last week the Monash Freeway was closed for hours thanks to a crash between two massive trucks and four cars, that thankfully resulted in no serious injuries. But for me the interesting part was the truck stuck in the middle of the pile-up – a massive A-double truck operated by Cleanaway.

A crash involving two trucks and four cars has closed part of Melbourne's Monash Freeway this morning. But incredibly, police say no-one was seriously hurt. Three people have been taken to hospital, two with minor injuries and the third is in a stable condition. pic.twitter.com/cs8h2x7FXJ — News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) July 24, 2019

Cleanaway started operating their fleet of massive A-Double trucks from May 2017, following the opening of the South East Melbourne Transfer Station in Dandenong.

The facility acts as a consolidation point for rubbish collected from residential and commercial customers in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, where it is compressed into semi-trailers.

Then trucked 60 kilometres across Melbourne.

Eventually ending up at Ravenhall, where it is dumped into the Melbourne Regional Landfill.

On opening the South East Melbourne transfer station accepted a total of 580,000 tonnes of waste per annum, and has EPA approval to increase to a peak of 650,000 tonnes by 2029.

Assuming 286 operational weekdays per year, this means 2028 tonnes of rubbish needs to be moved per day – increasing to 2273 tonnes per day once the transfer station reaches design capacity.

Transported by A-double vehicles with an average load of 43 tonnes per truck, this give as weekday average of 47 trucks per day, increasing to 53 trucks per day at the peak – or six trucks per hour!

No wonder pedestrians avoid the road to Caroline Springs station like the plague.

A short history of these ‘monster’ trucks

Back in 2009 VicRoads commenced a two year trial of bigger ‘High Productivity Freight Vehicles’ serving the Port of Melbourne.

But with plans to introduce them elsewhere:

The use of next generation High Productivity Freight Vehicles (HPFVs) on key dedicated routes has the potential to reduce the number of trucks by almost a third, and reduce emissions and the cost of travel by up to 22 per cent on these routes. With Victoria’s freight task forecast to approximately double by 2030, next generation HPFVs will be an important way to mitigate increasing congestion, emissions and the cost of our goods. The trial of next generation HPFVs is an important step in the implementation of a Performance-Based Standards approach to heavy vehicle regulation in Victoria and the broader introduction of new, safe and efficient freight vehicles.

In 2013 the number of roads available to these massive trucks was expanded, following the adoption of the ‘Moving More with Less’ plan, and the types of trucks expanded to include 30-metre long A-doubles in 2017 thanks to the Performance Based Standard (PBS) scheme for trailers.

But is there another way?

Travelling from the Cleanaway transfer station at Dandenong South to the tip at Ravenhall is a 60 kilometre long trip across Melbourne, that takes around an hour via the Monash Freeway, CityLink, West Gate Bridge, Western Ring Road, and Deer Park Bypass.

But the Boral quarry next door to the Ravenhall tip already has a railway siding.

Which branches off the Ballarat line at Caroline Springs station.

With just a 1.3 kilometre drive between it and the tip.

The South East Melbourne Transfer Station is also near a rail siding.

Located on the Cranbourne line at Lyndhurst.

It may be a 7 kilometre long drive across Dandenong South.

But the siding is the site of a future inland port:

Salta’s Lyndhurst terminal is located near Dandenong

• 50,000 m/3 warehouse constructed for Bunnings

• Terminal yet to be constructed

• PRS shuttle trains would use:

• Broad gauge Pakenham & Cranbourne suburban rail lines

• Broad gauge V/Line & ARTC lines between Southern Cross and the Port

So why wasn’t the South East Melbourne Transfer Station built at the Lyndhurst intermodal terminal, with rubbish loaded into containers then transferred by train across Melbourne to Ravenhall, then trucked the last leg of the journey to the tip face?

Sydney proves it works

In 2004 Sydney ran out of space to bury their rubbish, so the Woodlawn open-cut mine near Goulburn was converted into a rubbish tip. Rubbish is loaded at the Clyde transfer station in western Sydney, but instead of a fleet of trucks, it is loaded onto a train.

Each week six 55-carriage trains make the 250-kilometre journey, carrying 1200 tonnes of rubbish each time.

And back to Melbourne

Think moving bulk freight across Melbourne by rail won’t work?

Well, every weekday 1500 tonnes worth of worth of gravel roll through Flinders Street, loaded at a quarry in Kilmore East and bound for Westall.

As does 2000 tonnes of containers headed from Gippsland to the Port of Melbourne.

And 3000 tonnes of coil steel, headed for Hastings.

All three trains have been running since the 1970s – which proves that if there is a will to get freight onto rail, there is a way.

Sources

Melbourne Regional Landfill – Ravenhall.

Bigger trucks.

Rubbish trains in Sydney.

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