Why RBA’s Sydney office rebuild has landed it in trouble with a court

The Reserve Bank of Australia has a new critic – and this time not mortgage-laden home owners – as a long-planned redevelopment of its asbestos-ridden headquarters has prompted concerns over the impact on one of Sydney’s busiest courthouses.

The NSW Justice Department has raised alarm bells over plans to revamp the RBA’s Martin Place office tower, fearing noise and vibrations from construction could impede the neighbouring Land and Environment Court.

The department’s concerns centre on the proximity of the court, which shares walls with the RBA’s head office.

The Reserve Bank is seeking approval from the City of Sydney Council to carry out the first stage of its long-planned office upgrade which includes removing hazardous building material along with original building slabs, marble walls, windows, and leather doors.

The project has been years in the planning stages and faces escalating costs after bonded and friable asbestos was found in sections of the 61-year-old building.

The total cost of the project has been estimated as high as $1.2 billion – more than four times the initial renovation estimate of $260 million – which the bank has largely attributed to addressing asbestos woes.

Before the upgrade, the bank had considered selling the office tower but instead determined it would be more “cost-effective” to undertake remediation works – a project expected to commence within the next four years.

But there are concerns the works could cause a range of “noise and vibration” impacts on the Land and Environment Court, potentially resulting in hearings being drowned out and even leading to mistrials.

NSW Department of Community and Justice senior manager of environment and heritage planning Catherine Colville has called for a ban on disruptive works during court sitting hours, between 9am to 5pm on weekdays.

The court is one of the state’s busiest and in an average week can hear more than 150 cases ranging from development and planning appeals, environmental cases along with criminal prosecutions, judicial reviews and civil enforcements.

In a submission to the City of Sydney, Colville warned “highly sensitive courtrooms equipped with advanced audiovisual link and digital recording systems” could come under “significant risk” from the “excessive noise and vibration from nearby construction activities”.

“[This could] potentially degrade audio quality, compromising accurate transcriptions, and, in severe cases, could result in mistrials and appeals that disrupt court proceedings,” she wrote.

Plans to upgrade the 22-storey building have been in the works for more than three years and the upgrade is not expected to be completed until mid-2031.

The scale of asbestos found in the heritage-listed tower has already resulted in bank staff having to relocate from the site to a leased office in Chifley Square.

In development plans to the City of Sydney, the RBA stated the upgrade would have measures in place to address noise and vibration impacts on neighbouring buildings including “respite” periods from 8 to 9am and 12 to 2pm on weekdays.

The bank has also pledged to schedule hydraulic hammering and saw-cutting in a way to “minimise noise impacts”.

Colville called for further mitigation measures during construction, including a ban on noisy or vibration-generating works during court sitting hours, and ongoing noise monitoring to reduce disturbances.

The mitigation measures, Colville wrote, would be “critical to ensuring the ongoing integrity of court operations”.

In a statement, an RBA spokesman said: “We understand the Land and Environment Court concerns and the potential impact to their business.

“We have engaged with them and measured their existing background noise levels. We have also measured the noise generated by our proposed construction/demolition methodology to ensure it complies with the City of Sydney noise in construction guidelines.”

Asked whether the RBA would consider scheduling work outside court hearing hours, the spokesman said: “It may not be practical to undertake noisy works after hours, as this approach could impact other neighbours”, including a nearby hotel.

The RBA’s head office includes purpose-built facilities including bank vaults, a dealing room, a museum and archives.

The development application to the City of Sydney is due to be determined at a council planning meeting next week.

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