Geography Now - Clem7 Tunnel



(Flowtoll.com.au , pg1)



The Clem Jones tunnel is situated in the Central Business District in Brisbane, Queensland. The Clem7 Tunnel was built from 2008 to 2009 and is 6.8km long (The Courier Mail,2010, pg1)(Business spectator, 2010).It was built to assist Brisbane’s growing population and reduce hazardous congestion within the city. However due to high toll rates and differing opinions between the government and the public the tunnel has not been as successful as was planned and is resulting in large financial losses (The Courier Mail,2010, pg1).

Map of the Clem7 Tunnel
(Brisbanetimes.com.au, “Clem7 confusion”, pg1)

The Clem7 tunnel has lost more than 1.5 billion dollars due to the decreasing numbers in traffic flow (The Courier Mail,2010, pg4). Financially, the Rivercity Motorway has lost more than $1.56 billion, due to the decreasing numbers of motorists passing through the Clem7 tunnel then originally predicted. It has been recorded that during the first month of the Clem7 tunnel opening there was an average of 60,541 vehicles pasting through the tunnel daily, but in August 2010 the number dropped dramatically to an average of 27,908 vehicles a day (Business spectator, 2010).

From the government’s point of view the tunnel was built to ease traffic congestion, to direct traffic away from the inner city and to plan for the future population growth (The Courier Mail,2010, pg1).As the construction finished on the tunnel, the new and quicker way to pass through the city was attracting more motorists to pass through. Due the fact that it cut in 20 minutes from the average motorists travel time and bypasses 24 sets of traffic lights (Clem7, Benefits, 2010).

As for the public’s opinion, the new Clem Jones tunnel was expensive and a let down. After the first month of free tolling, the new price soared up to $2.95 for cars (9news, 2010). The backlash of this was that the number of vehicles declined. Recently the owners, Rivercity Motorway, cut the price down to $2 for cars (Business spectator, 2010).With this new set price, motorists suspect that more people will start to use the tunnel more often and Rivercity Motorway will take advantage of this and rise the price again(9news, 2010).

Traffic still crammed and still no one is using
the Clem7(Couriermail.com.au, pg1)

Geography Now - San Bruno Gas Explosion



Many calls to 911 were made(Orble,2010,pg1)



On Thursday the 9^th of September 2010 in San Bruno, California, United States of America, a neighbourhood was destroyed by a massive explosion followed by a raging fire. There were many calls to 911 and the reports were that people thought it was plane crash because only a few miles away was the San Francisco International Airport, but it turned out to be a major gas leak (ABCnews, September 10 2010).

                                                                                       

The start of the explosion occurred around the time of 6:15pm, just as the sun was setting. Many residents around the neighbourhood felt harsh shaking from the explosion and some people said the shaking was fiercer than the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. As numerous residents rushed out of their homes, all they could see in the atmosphere were fierce yellow, red and orange flames with dark, black, bellowing clouds rising towards the sky (ABCnews, September 10 2010).

Crater left after explosion(The Christian Science Monitor)

As fire fighters arrived at the scene, one of the fire truck’s windshield cracked and the paint on residents cars was bubbling because of the extremely high temperatures. The temperature also caused many people numerous burns on people’s bodies. In this incident 52 people were injured including four fire fighters and, sadly, four people were killed. More than 100 people were evacuated from their homes and more than 80 homes were damaged by the explosion (ABCnews, September 10 2010)(ABCnews, September 14 2010). On Friday the 10^th, fire fighters were still trying to put out the flames. (ABCnews, September 10 2010).What was left from this sudden disaster was a 15 feet deep, 20 feet long and 30 feet wide creator which was left in the pavement (Theenergycollective,pg1)(The Bay Citizen, pg1).

Officials discovered that earlier in the week, the company PG&E knew about the gas leak but did nothing about it. Residents complained to the PG&E work crew that they could smell gas, but all the work crew told them was “to close their garage doors to avoid smelling the gas odor.”  The gas pipe that caused the explosion was installed in 1948. Residents believe that the pipe should have been replaced a long time ago (The Bay Citizen, pg1).



PG&E pipe which caused explosion( SFgate.com)



Geography Now - Victoria Floods

 

Flooded Land(Worldnews network,pg1)



A flood is defined as a large quantity of heavy rainfall which falls in a small amount of time. As rain falls down onto the earth, the surface of land can not obsorb the amount of water which then causes disastrous flooding (Environment and Development pg1).

Recently Victoria, Australia has experienced the worst flooding in 15 years. The last flood that Victoria experienced was the “1998 flood” which destroyed and damaged a large number of buildings, acreages, many trees and powerlines (Embraceaustralia, 2010).  The Australian weather bureau sent out major flood warnings for the north-east, north-west and the mid-west regions of Victoria (abc.net.au, 2010, pg1).

SES (WorldNewsAustralia,2010)

Many communities have been affected by the flooding. The main areas which have been effected are Shepparton, Horsham, Wangaratta, Bairnsdale and Charlton (“Victoria Floods still in loom” Video). The State Emergency Service received many calls for assistance and the army has been deployed to help (abc news”15years”, p1). As the rain kept coming down, rivers and lakes overflowed adding to the rising water levels. Many people in communities were advised to evacuate their homes and go to the nearest City hall for shelter (Embraceaustalia, 2010). During the time of flooding, there were also wind gusts of more than 110km/hour which have damaged trees, powerlines and some shed roofs. This wind has spread across Melbourne and all over Victoria (abc.net.au, 2010,p1).

The damage cost of this years flooding has risen to more than $10 million. Many more than 600 farms and properties have been flooded, broken or destroyed. Numerous crops and some farming land have been washed away by the rain and farmers have had to move their livestock to safety. The Victorian Government is giving financial support to their citizens who have lost everything, and for major structurally damaged homes, the Federal Government will be giving $26,000 individually (Embraceaustralia, 2010)(abc news”15years”, p1).

The damage will continue throughout the state as water flows down the creeks and rivers to different areas of Victoria. This will result in a major clean up that will take several weeks (abc news”15years”, p1).

Large amount of rainfall heading towards Victoria (News.com.au,pg1) .

Large amount of rainfall heading towards Victoria (News.com.au,pg1) .