A KITCHENER ROAD resident has blamed a council-installed speed hump out the front of his home for shaking his house so violently that new cracks have opened in the walls.
Steven Marrows says the problem has escalated in recent months as larger vehicles and four-wheel drives hit the device “at more than 50km/h”, sending shudders through his home.
“We’ve lived here since April 2015,” Mr Marrows said.
“I’ve noticed vibrations and cracking for the last couple of years, but it’s gotten much worse this year, particularly over the winter months.”
“You can physically feel the vibrations if a large truck hits it,” he said.
“But when a car hits—particularly when we’re in bed in the quieter hours—it sounds like the timber in my roof is cracking—it’s so loud.”
Mr Marrows first raised the issue formally with the City of Melville earlier this month, warning that he was concerned about potential “structural damage” to his and nearby properties.
But rather than sending someone out to inspect the site, the City told him that vibrations from traffic are “typically minimal” and “unlikely to cause structural damage to nearby buildings”.
“That was very disappointing,” he said.
“My concerns were dismissed so quickly without even assessing the site, the speed hump or the resulting effects on my home.”
City of Melville traffic and road safety coordinator Kamal Khalil told Mr Marrows in a letter seen by the Chook that the hump was installed more than 25 years ago, and the City would only consider reviewing it if he hires an an engineer.
Mr Marrows argues this shifts the burden unfairly to residents.
“They’ve put all the onus on us to prove this is their fault,” he said. “It would cost me tens of thousands of dollars to engage a civil engineer, tens of thousands to pursue legal action, and it’s likely to cost tens of thousands in repairs if this continues. The council don’t care about my predicament.
“What do I do that isn’t going to affect me and my family financially?” he said.
“I feel trapped in a situation that is only getting worse with no way out.”
Mr Marrows also disputes the idea that the hump is doing its job. He says it was rebuilt about 10 years ago and that it’s too low and too flat to force drivers to slow down.
“From the very start, the hump wasn’t a deterrent because of its size and shape,” he said in a letter to the council.
He says he tried contacting the City’s CEO on October 27 but hasn’t received a response – and he’s unsure what to do next.
“Does my local MP have any power over the council? Do I escalate to the local TV channels?”
For now, the City’s position is that speed humps are an effective and widely used safety tool, and says Mr Marrows will need an engineer’s report if he wants action to prove the hump is to blame. Mr Marrows says that’s backwards.
“As a ratepayer, I’d expect more than to be dismissed in one email. I’d like the City to remove the hump—it isn’t a deterrent anyway—and replace it with something that actually slows drivers down.”
There’s been plenty of research into the effects of speed humps on nearby buildings, though much of it has focussed on noise and occupant comfort rather than structural damage.
While most concluded that humps did create vibrations that could be felt in nearby buildings, there was a large variety of factors, such as soil type and distance from the hump that could affect their intensity, and the Chook couldn’t find any that went as far as blaming a hump for cracking a building.
by ZAK BEATTIE