[PropertyInfo.003] Rail Link Updates

Latest Preferred Project Report for North West Rail Link Released
If you or any of your friends/relatives currently own or planning to own properties in the Epping, Cheltenham, Beecroft, Carlingford, West Pennant Hills, Castle Hills, Cherrybrook, ...etc suburbs, you should keep a close eyes on all information related to the North West Rail Link. As the construction of the rail way will have huge impact to the property price. For me, I only worry about the Epping to Castle Hill part as that's closest to me...

In case you are not aware, I noticed some information has just been released on 4/7, see "Preferred Project Report for the North West Rail Link" on TIDC web site. There's a very detail 127 page report included, which will take some time for anyone to digest and understand. It's good that there're also some detail drawings included.

I have attached the part closest to Epping station below for your reference. The black dashed lines are the new North West Rail Link, and the green dashed lines are the one originally proposed from Parramatta to Epping, which I believe is dead (see further information below).


In the report it also mentioned:

2.2.6 Letters to property owners
Letters were sent to all property owners within the 60 metre wide tunnel corridor and the 40 metre wide surface corridor. The letter outlined that the recipient’s property was potentially affected by the project, and provided information on the project and how to find out more. A copy of Planning Update No.2 was also included with the letter.

So I guess if your property is going to be effected, you would probably have received the notice (Quick, put the house on market for sale!!)...

Is the Parramatta Rail Link Dead?
This is actually a very old news now. I put it together with the article above as it's related somehow. I saw this article from "The Rail Now Campaign Inc." web site dated March 2003 talking about the status of the Parramatta to Epping Rail Link.

The best part of it is as quoted below:

"The Parramatta Rail Link EIS said the line had the capacity to carry up to 15 trains an hour(1). The plan was to have 4 from Hornsby and 8 from Parramatta ending up at Chatswood(2). But the Overview Report on the North-West railway says 8 trains an hour will run from Mungerie Park through Epping to Chatswood and beyond(3). That means 20 trains an hour from Epping to Chatswood, on a line which can carry 15. How can that be done?"

Personally, I don't really see the benefit of linking Epping & Parramatta, as both areas already have railway and other public transporation coverage. The North West one mentioned above would definitely be more beneficial to the public. I know a lot of friends and colleagues living in those areas have to rely on bus or driving to get to the city and it can take hours just for that. Traveling by train would be much quicker and better for the environment as well.

There will definitely be news/articles all over the place for complaints and other opinions (See this as an example) against this kind of major infrastructure construction works. Looking at the long term future for the development of the whole city, unfortunately, this is the price we have to pay...

[Tips.008] Do you have eaves for your new house?

The lovely weather only lasted about a week and it started rainning again....

The next tip I like to talk about is eaves. I think eaves are quite important and I was quite surprise to see lots of builders removed eaves from their houses.

Eaves helps your BASIX rating and houses without eaves looks like faces without eyebrow. When we dealed with Clarendon, we have to pay a few thousand dollars to add eaves. Why should I pay money for something that should have been included as standard in the first place?!

Found a few web sites with information about the importance of eaves, which you might be interested:

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This web site from NSW government has some handy tips and easy to understand pictures on ways to save water and energy, And here's one of them about eaves:



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This web site "Your Home Technical Manual" from greenhouse.gov.au mentioned a few things when choosing project home designs, as quoted below:

1. Select a design that can be positioned on your site to capture cooling breezes, particularly to living areas. Avoid large areas of west facing windows.

Most project home companies will mirror or flip a design to suit your needs at no extra cost.

2. Moving windows or doors from one elevation to another to capture cooling breezes often adds no cost but makes significant improvements to performance.

3. Avoid windows with fixed glass. Ask for windows with a significant openable area for ventilation.

4. Ensure that all openings are suitably shaded. Use landscape as an effective means of providing additional shade.

5. Ask for eaves to be included if the design has omitted them. ==> Why should they specifically mention this? There must be lots of project home builders omitting eaves in their design to cut cost!

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This web site from SA government also mentioned the followings:

A house with no eaves and no additional shading to the windows is required to have less glazed area than a house with eaves.

Good shading of windows (such as eave overhangs) and good orientation of the house (so that the main windows to living areas are facing due north) will enable the new requirements to be met for minimal cost (a few hundred dollars for more efficient insulation).

[Progress.014] Getting Another Quote for Retaining Walls

We are getting another quote for retaining wall today, from the same trades person who is going to do the retaining wall for our neighbour. Lucky he was able to have his big machines here the other day to excavate our neighbour's backyard before our builder put on the fences.

What he recommended is either the "Keystone" or "Pyrmont" range from Boral. You can view it online from Boral web site here (Note: there's also a "Pavers and Retaining Walls - Your landscaping Guide NSW" on the same page which you might find quite helpful). I have copied a few photos below from the brochure:



Compared to the ones in sandstone blocks (I reported it here on 30/5), personally I still prefer the sandstone block retaining wall as it looks more special. Those Boral yellowish walls seems to be everywhere. Well, everything comes down to price, if the price is a lot cheaper, we might consider that as well. Have to wait and see...

Attached a few photos below for reference. Tell me, if it's you, ignoring the price difference, which one would you choose?




Doesn't look that good from inside, but as it's going to be covered by soil, who cares!

[Progress.013] Latest Photos - Fences Up

This is what our construction site looks like as of yesterday morning. As mentioned the other day, our builder suddenly setup the wire fences without any notification.


As shown below, we still don't understand why they need to setup so many fences on the other side. Hope our neighbour has finished all required hole-drilling work for their retaining walls. Otherwise they won't be able to access their backyard through our vacant land any more...


This is the collapsed tree protection fence at the back. Now that they blocked the whole site, how am I going to fix up my fence?


After our demolisher removed the concrete slabs for old drive way, they filled it up with pebbles. Thanks to the recent storm, some of the mud was washed down to the road.

[Others.006] Have you seen concrete piers before?

Tried to upload some photos last night from home, for some reason it always timed out. Will try again tonight...

We have been talking about concrete piers but have no idea what it looks like. Basically it's just big holes drilled on the ground until it reaches rock, and then filled with concrete.

Thanks to "vanderlay" from homeone.com.au forum, I found this blog from "Amber's blog" with some photos about "Concrete Piers". Have a look yourself by clicking here (check for the post on 29/1/2007).

In our tender, concrete piers are listed as "provisional site cost", which means the actual $ will depends on what happened that day. If they have to drill a much deeper hole than expected, we will have to pay the differences. Hopefully this won't happen...