Residents bearing brunt of negative building impacts

RESIDENTS all over this city, where multi-unit buildings with basements are being constructed, are experiencing severe detriment and distress.

Bruce Molloy’s letter (GCB, 8/4), explains the main culprit – sheet piling, which is not only deafening, but the vibrations also damage nearby buildings.

And there’s a long list of other construction impacts too. Anchoring under adjoining properties will inhibit their future development potential.

De-watering of excavated basements causes several impacts: the pumps and the gushing water are noisy; the groundwater extraction causes subsidence and affects foundations of nearby buildings; and the massive volumes of water are allowed to go straight into stormwater outlet drains instead of being diverted to water our parks and gardens.

Demolition and concreting create high levels of noise and dust. Concrete trucks and loading of materials and machinery cause traffic congestion.

Pedestrian thoroughfares are blocked by site offices and gantry. Streets are occupied by machinery and workers’ cars and are unavailable for resident carparking.

We’ve also seen several significant construction site safety breaches recently, which is alarming as we see cranes swinging above houses and public roads.

Most of these issues are not new but they have intensified in recent years. They are symptomatic of and exacerbated by greatly reduced setback allowances from site boundaries; increased prevalence of the sheet piling technique for basement construction; and the current spike in number of sites undergoing construction.

The only consolation for neighbours is that this problem isn’t unique to the Gold Coast. It is happening all over southeast Queensland.

No-one would dare to say they want to stop the construction boom. That would be like blasphemy in this city. But they want the construction activity to be regulated and managed better.