14 July 2023
Reporting period: 18 May 2022 to 18 May 2023
Below is a summary of the information in this document. To read the full document, open the PDF or Word document file.
Summary of document
This compliance report covers the reporting period between 18 May 2022 and 18 May 2023. The purpose of this report is to document compliance with the conditions for the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) Approval 2018/8142 Condition 12. Details of compliance are provided, and where appropriate, the timing of completion of individual actions is identified.
The key dates that relate to the approval are detailed in the table below, download the PDF report ( PDF, 14.4 MB) or download the Word document report (DOCX, 40.4 MB) to find out more.
Key NELP EPBC dates
| Action | Key date |
|---|---|
| Commonwealth Approval | 12/12/2019 |
| Commencement of the action | 18/05/2020 |
| Commonwealth Variation Approval | 28/08/2020 |
| Commonwealth Variation Approval | 29/06/2021 |
| Expiry of the Commonwealth approval | 03/10/2039 |
Description of activities
Overview of project
The North East Link Project (NELP) (a division of the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority (MTIA)), on behalf of the Victorian State government, is currently constructing the North East Link (NEL) Project (referred to herein as ‘the Project’). The NEL is a new freeway-standard road connection to the north-east of the Melbourne Central Business District that would complete Melbourne’s ring road. Specifically, the NEL will connect the Metropolitan Ring Road (M80) to the Eastern Freeway and includes works along the Eastern Freeway from near Hoddle Street to Springvale Road. The NEL is an approved action under EPBC Approval 2018/8142.
The Project has been broken down into phases to allow seamless delivery. The initial phase – Early Works – allows for utilities and secondary infrastructure to be prepared prior to the major development. Works include the relocation of utilities, relocation of Sports and Recreation spaces and development of Park and Ride services for Public Transport linkages. The following phases – Primary (Tunnelling) Package, and Secondary (Freeway) Packages – are the divisions of the road connections relevant to the development and construction of the tunnel, and interchanges with the M80 and Eastern Freeway and ancillary works respectively.
Approval conditions compliance
Refer to pages 7-26 in the report for details.
New environmental risks
No new environmental risks have been identified.
As the project advances, the Environment team will continue to monitor and manage environmental risks through Contractor’s ISO 14001-compliant environmental management systems.