Value

This State Significant Development (SSD) covers approximately 10 hectares of the 43-hectare Pacific National site. The project was approved in May 2020, construction commenced in the November and the freight hub began operations in mid-December 2021. The intermodal hub services major retail distribution centres and warehouses across Greater Western Sydney, including industrial estates in Eastern Creek, Marsden Park, Wetherill Park and Erskine Park. Containerised freight now moves via rail from Port Botany to St Marys removing 80,000 truck kilometres annually.

While the buildings themselves were not complex, the site’s attributes made for an incredibly challenging design and regulatory process. The development constraints included the following;

Endangered flora and fauna on site requiring biodiversity credits & offsets

Bushfire prone land

Flood affected land

Contaminated land requiring remediation

Significant noise constraints

Being a SSD, the consent authority was the NSW Government – DPIE. MBC Group provided advice throughout the assessment stage reviewing project documentation to ensure the site’s competing constraints were accommodated. Draft development consents were also reviewed to ensure the conditions were fair, reasonable and aligned with the project’s physical works program. This strategy allowed a three-stage construction approval delivered using MBC Group’s streamlined, paperless system to enable works to physically commence onsite in a timely manner while our attention to detail was critical in ensuring all site constraints were considered and resolved as early as possible.