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These mitigation efforts have so far cost taxpayers $181 million, the leaked report reveals – including proposed compensation to RMIT of $12 million for issues created with its scientific equipment.
During testing in June, the machines failed to meet reliability standards when trains ran through the tunnel under Peter Mac, the leaked report says.
The new rail line is expected to open to the public next year, with peak-hour trains running every three minutes beneath the hospital precinct. The leaked government report proposes a range of strategies to limit their impact on hospital medical instruments.
The report says that, “based on advice from international experts and modelling of electromagnetic interference levels”, mitigation strategies will include an amperage limit “in the electrical section [of the rail tunnel] through Parkville, restricting High Capacity Metro Trains acceleration and deceleration performance”.
This fleet of 70 specially-built High Capacity Metro Trains to run through the tunnel cost Victorians $2.3 billion (there were originally 65 trains but five more were purchased, to run on the now stalled airport rail line).
The documents reveal that, if further mitigation is not put in place, the trains could create further headaches when they are eventually upgraded from seven cars to 10 as planned by the government.
“This is not anticipated for at least 15 years,” the leaked report says. But the report warns the government that further work may be required on additional electro-magnetic mitigation strategies if these 10-car sets run in the Metro Tunnel.
Current strategies also do not account for the possibility of a second Metro Tunnel eventually connecting to Parkville and any increase in demand for power from the nearby tram network.
The leaked report also shows that three transmission electron microscopes at RMIT’s City Campus also remain unreliable despite upgrades to shield them.
The university and the project are in discussions about a $12 million commercial settlement and RMIT is investigating a new facility to relocate sensitive equipment, notes on the status report say.
Premier Jacinta Allan on Wednesday said that along with the usual teething problems on a project of this scale, dealing with the EMI issue was “a challenge that is a little bit unique to Melbourne”.
“We are working collaboratively with… the hospital and the other institutions in the Parkville precinct to both continue to deliver world class patient care and also deliver the Metro tunnel,” she said.
She said that no patient care had been compromised by the issues created by the new train tunnel.
Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas on Wednesday said she was pleased with the way mitigation strategies for sensitive health equipment had progressed, with work still underway with hospitals and manufacturers.
“Obviously, train testing started last year, and that’s when we really saw whether or not those strategies were working,” she said.
“We’ve still got some work to do to resolve the issues at Peter Mac, but I want to be very clear right now, there has been no impact on patient care whatsoever.
“We have had a lot of success in terms of Royal Melbourne Hospital, and strategies that we’ve put in place there. We will continue to work on mitigation strategies for the MRI equipment at Peter Mac.”
Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman David Southwick said the issue had thrown doubt over the future of the Parkville medical precinct.
Victorian government spokesperson said the tunnel had been “future-proofed” to ensure it can run 10-car trains in the future and that minimising impact from the trains had “no impact on travel times between stations”.
“We don’t shy away from delivering world class infrastructure that Victorians deserve – this is a project that the Liberals ran away from and cancelled when they had the chance to build it,” they said.
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