The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (NSW DPIE) has released a study of the supply and demand profile for construction materials in the Greater Sydney Region.
Regional NSW’s Mining, Exploration and Geoscience (MEG) division, a subsidiary of the NSW DPIE, commissioned the Supply and Demand Profile of Geological Construction Materials for the Greater Sydney Region (GSR) report.
MEG commissioned industry consultants RW Corkery and Co (RWC) to undertake the study, which includes a survey of quarrying and concrete companies and face to face interviews with the stakeholders. RWC was assisted in the study by Ecoroc.
The study serves as an outline of current supply and future demand for construction materials across the Greater Sydney Region’s five planning districts, which includes the Western City district, Eastern City district, Central City district, North district and South district.
It is understood that MEG will circulate the results from the study to relevant government agencies planning for future freight distribution, economic supply of extractive resources and allocation of land for regional distribution centres.
The results include an assessment of the current level of supply and future demand for construction materials used in housing, roads, buildings and engineered infrastructure. Substitute construction materials from construction waste and civil construction projects were also included in the study.
A MEG spokesperson told Quarry no further work is planned, but that it would be ensuring stakeholders and agencies are aware of the study.
“Mining, Exploration and Geoscience within the Department of Regional NSW will ensure relevant agencies and key external stakeholders are aware the report is now publicly available,” the spokesperson said.
RWC’s principal environmental consultant Rob Corkery said the study was vital to the growth of the GSR this decade and beyond.
“The study’s purpose is to ascertain accurate estimates of the quantities of construction materials needed for housing, roads and infrastructure now, and over the next 20 years – including sources of supply and the transport routes and modes needed to deliver the materials,”
Ecoroc’s principal Dugald Gray explained that “all hard rock aggregates used in the GSR are now transported from outside the region whereas a proportion of the sand resources used within the region are sourced locally”.
“We need to look at the inventories of resources within the areas feeding construction materials into the GSR to see whether other geological resources need to be made available for future generations,” Gray said. “This requires the planning approval process for existing and any new quarries to think locally and think regionally. It’s never an easy task.”
The study and peer reviewed report is available online.
