Barton residents say ACT noise laws fail at Willemsen site

Those hit hardest include the Landmark apartments directly behind the site, Macquarie Court and nearby houses, the outlet says. Ms Hughes says sitting behind the AFP College gives little shelter from the scraping and hammering, and people have been driven inside. The report adds that neighbouring businesses can relocate staff, while residents cannot afford to move.

She adds that a week of night works in August hit the area, done at the government’s request to avoid disrupting buses.

The numbers

Manteena wrote back to Ms Hughes on 21 October, according to Region Canberra. It promised no further night works and said the job is running inside approved hours of 7 am to 6 pm, Monday to Saturday. The builder expects digging to finish in early 2027, though that depends on how hard the rock proves.

Manteena also said all work follows the project’s approvals and requirements, including exemptions covering construction activity and noise during approved hours. The outlet says the building is due for completion in mid-2028 and that Manteena was approached for comment.

Ms Hughes contends that, unlike rules for the Sydney CBD, ACT law demands neither noise management plans nor mitigation equipment. She also says the regulation ignores noise travelling from a commercial zone into a residential one, and that the EPA conceded construction noise is a territory-wide problem but has limited power under current rules.

What’s next

A spokesperson for the ACT Government confirmed to the outlet that construction sites need not have noise management plans. The laws also set no particular mitigation measures and no cap on how long work such as excavation, rock breaking or jackhammering can run.

The spokesperson said “Construction projects are required to comply with the noise standards set in the regulation”. They added that bigger or more complex developments have impacts handled via development approval conditions, major project approvals, contract terms or other project-specific processes.

The spokesperson noted the ACT and NSW use different legislative and regulatory frameworks for construction noise, so like-for-like comparisons are not always simple. The report says the Territory is not looking at amending its construction noise regulations.

Everything above is Region Canberra’s account (see also our report on vacant CBD offices). We have not seen the project approvals or the correspondence it describes.