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13 October – 26 October 2011
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Earth watch for shaky hill By Keith Platt FRANKSTON landmark Olivers Hill is recognised as shaky ground. Strict planning regulations are in place to ensure the safety of structures built on the hill, which is zoned “high to very high risk”. Last week soil samples were again being taken from beneath the bitumen at the car park halfway up the hill. Engineering and environmental services consultancy Golder Associates took the soil samples as part of the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s “normal monitoring and management regime of the area”. “There are no plans to undertake stabilisation works at this time,” a spokesperson for the DSE said. Golder did not return calls from The Times. The car park and footpath was closed about six years ago after the ground subsided. The path has since been reopened but cars are still kept at bay. The highway was closed for almost two years after a major landslide near the car park in 1948. More recent soil movements have been blamed on “poor compaction” of the soil used as fill. When contacted about last week’s soil testing, Frankston Council said its infrastructure team “have confirmed the works there are being done by VicRoads and it is soil testing for what purpose we haven’t been told”. The risks on the hill are well documented in the planning scheme amendment C46: landslide; erosion (caused by waves and flooded waterways); perennial springs destabilising the ground; water flowing across slopes; and from “turbulent and high velocity water flows in gullies and channels after rain events”. However, future movement on the hill remains an unknown, creating a problem for planners. Concrete barriers have been placed on the beach to protect houses close to the shore at the northern end of Daveys Bay. Opponents of the proposed Olivers Hill marina say construction work could trigger landslides.
Boring time: A drilling crew check the stability of the ground beneath the car park that remains closed on Olivers Hill in Frankston.
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