UTAS CONFIDENT ENGINEERS ARE UP TO THE TASK AT INVERESK

THE University of Tasmania says it is confident engineers will be able to design a new campus capable of withstanding flooding, despite critics of the planned move to Inveresk arguing the risks have not been properly scrutinised. 

Retired teacher and academic Chris Penna has published a new report warning buildings at the proposed $260 million Inveresk campus would be more prone to flooding than previously thought because of rainfall increases in projected climate change scenarios. 

UTAS PUBLISHES PLANS FOR A PROPOSED NORTHERN CAMPUS UTAS HANDS GRAND PLANS TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT Mr Penna said a recent flood mapping report published by the City of Launceston highlighted the risk the campus would face if the South Esk River burst its banks. 

“The report indicates that if there was a one-in-200-year flood any time soon, then Inveresk would be flooded to a depth of between 2 and 5 metres and that would be at a hazard class five level … which means there would be significant damage to buildings and that there would be danger to both humans and vehicles,” Mr Penna said. 

Mr Penna said buildings in the Inveresk area were also at risk of damage from low magnitude earthquakes off the Tasmanian coast. 

Retired academic Chris Penna, and Tasmanian Ratepayers Associaton president Lionel Morrell are concerned about flood risks under the proposed UTAS move to Inveresk. 

Infrastructure Australia is assessing the project’s final business case, which was submitted in late January, but Mr Penna said the body should have become involved earlier in the process. Money from the state and federal governments would be spent on the move from the existing UTAS campus at Newnham to Inveresk. 

The University of Tasmania expects its first development application to be lodged with the council by the end of next month. 

“We are confident in the ability of contemporary engineering to design flood-resilient buildings here in Launceston, as is done in cities and towns around the globe,” the university’s Launceston-based Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Dom Geraghty said. 

“The challenges we are grappling with here, in a city at the confluence of two rivers, are challenges facing more and more communities around the world as climate change impacts the planet.” Labor MP for Bass, Ross Hart, said Mr Penna’s report “should be of assistance to the university” but reiterated his support for the move. “It is not unusual for engineers to deal with difficult sites but it’s something that needs to be addressed,” he said. 

The report was commissioned by a group opposed to the Inveresk move. 

...................................

Launceston ratepayers group calls for UTAS to reconsider its move to Inveresk Caitlin Jarvis

Launceston ratepayer Chris Penna and Northern Tasmania Network Partners group spokesman Lionel Morell have concerns over UTAS' campus move to Inveresk. 

A Launceston ratepayers group has called on the University of Tasmania to rethink its campus move from Newnham to Inveresk citing flood mitigation concerns. 

The Northern Tasmania Network Partners group, headed by Launceston architect Lionel Morell, has made the calls after the group commissioned its own independent review into flood and seismic risk. 

"We are not against the university reforming itself, we have to modernise our universities," Mr Morell said. 

However, UTAS says they are confident they can mitigate the flood risk and other challenges the site possesses and will forge ahead with the plans for the $260 million campus. 

Launceston ratepayer and researcher Chris Penna was commissioned to conduct the report for the Network after sparking a personal interest in UTAS' business case. 

Mr Penna said he came into the project "an independent" but said he quickly became concerned as he compiled the report because he "could find no data to support the assertions being made." 

He said he was unable to find evidence or any comparison of the risks related to the Inveresk move, compared to the "sensible" alternative, to stay at the Newnham site. 

A business case for the UTAS Inveresk campus is expected to be lodged in June after it missed its original deadline of the end of 2018. 

Launceston-based pro-vice-chancellor Dom Geraghty said UTAS was confident they could work through the challenges of the site. 

"We are confident in the ability of contemporary engineering to design flood resilient buildings here in Launceston, as is done in cities and towns around the globe. 

"It is important to design and build - and crucially to innovate - in places just like Inveresk," he said. 

"The challenges we are grappling with here, in a city at the confluence of two rivers, are challenges facing more and more communities around the world as climate change impacts the planet." 

Mr Morell and Mr Penna said they did not have an issue with UTAS plan, but rather the location and urged them to undertake a full public inquiry into the benefits. 

Mr Penna said more evidence and documents needed to be made public to ensure the community had a clearer understanding of the implications of the move. 

"It's fairly obvious that buildings can be designed to cope with issues such as the sedimentary materials they are being built and with potential flooding but this does not negate a lot of the other issues," he said. 

Those issues include the evacuation of the campus in the event of a flood and also the plans for the existing buildings UTAS already occupies at Inveresk.