We were promised some high tech stuff on the Cross Yarra Project – is this it??

Today near the old Domain Interchange I spotted two people working very diligently with a brush pan and brush!!  Almost looked like an archaeological dig??

Here is a short video of tonight’s trams – after a peaceful morning when things seemed better, it is now as bad as it has ever been.

Something must be different to the new tracks on the Toorak Rd corner…are the sleepers, clips, rail different?????

I’ve just got back and the squeal is much better today – interesting…what has changed??  I’ve been told that Yarra Trams seemed to do a lot of cleaning last night and again this morning (running their cleaning machine over the tracks).

Does cleaning really make that much difference?  If it does, why did they wait until it was soooo bad???  How often will they do it?

Sounds much more like an alignment issue but I am no tram expert

At least I may be able to sleep here tonight

We were told that the squeal would diminish over 2-3 days.  That did happen but this evening it has returned, and it is bad.  This video shows consecutive trams coming out of the city in the evening peak.  City bound trams are almost all squeal free….could it be load related??

If you are not happy then call 1800 105 105 and politely explain your concern

Hopefully this guy also is ‘hearing’ the problem

The tram works are done for now, the tunnel digging hasn’t started and the noise from the trams has subsided a lot…so I thought I’d turn the time lapse camera to the city last night.

Wow

You should received this document in your letterbox today.  This will be the set up until at least June

I have just come back from the Community Reference Group and have some news.

1. The road part of the works being done out the front are a bit behind schedule.  To finish that work, they will be working at night for the next 3 nights.  Some more details are here
2. Bowen Lane was to be closed in the next week.  It will now be kept open until at least June, perhaps longer.  This will make is easier to exit our lower car park.

..and yes I have raised the issue of the trams being very noisy on the new tracks.  There is some hope that it will improve as the tracks ‘bed in’ and the drivers take a little more care.  It is only some trams – not all.

If it is causing you grief – feel free to ring 1800 105 105 and lodge a complaint.

The schedule says that we will have full operations tomorrow – great to see a ‘test run‘ just now.

Not sure it will be very efficient if it needs six people in fluoro vests to walk in front of each one 😉

Well done all round

Several people have asked me about the ‘noise rules’.  How noisy can it be?  What about at night?

There is no easy answer but the best news is that MOST of the work will be done during weekdays and Saturdays.  Night works will be fairly uncommon

I waded through the many pages and distilled it down to Understanding Metro Tunnel noise limits – apologies that it is quite detailed.

MMRA have their own fact sheet that is also quite good, a little more polished 🙂

MM-FACT-SHEET-Noise-Vibration-MAY-2017