A Beverly Hills mother has pleaded for help from the Premier after WestConnex denied responsibility for major cracks that have opened up in the walls of her house.
Christine Wong Wan Po said in a letter to Gladys Berejiklian the house she and her husband Allen bought five years ago didn’t have a single crack until deep excavation for the King Georges Road Interchange took place just 30 metres away.
Ms Wong Wan Po fears for the safety of their daughters, 13 and 11.
“I'm pleading a case which sounds so absurd, which seems so logical and yet … I feel so very small in the huge scheme of things,” she wrote.
“I have to believe that I can be the David in this Goliath story.”
WestConnex also denied responsibility for cracks in the adjoining house in Elouera Street, owned by John English and Kathryn Calman, an outspoken critic of the road project.
One of several cracks in the Wong Wan Po home runs through a brick wall, while another snakes down a wall from ceiling to floor.
There are also indications of subsidence, with kitchen floor tiles becoming loose and a sideboard needing a wedge under one corner to stop drawers sliding out.
Engineers contracted by the company constructing the interchange upgrade reported in each case: “We cannot ascertain” whether the cracks “are a direct consequence” of the work.
The house owners were left with nowhere to go when inspectors for their own insurance companies reported the damage was undoubtedly caused by the construction work.
Ms Wong Wan invited Ms Berejiklian to come and see the damage first hand.
She told the Premier how, after “years of saving our pennies” and searching, she and her husband found their “dream home” and a “safe haven” for their growing family.
“We love what our little home is to us and that is a place for our kids to feel safe, a place where we can entertain and share our lives with our loved ones, a place where strangers can feel at home, a place where we welcome overseas visitors …,” she wrote.
Ms Wong Wan Po said during the WestConnex work, and in the period since completion, “the cracks have started becoming longer and longer, wider and wider”.
“Finally, on February 7, parts of the wall started to fall apart and onto the floor,” she wrote.
Ms Wong Wan Po said their “pre-construction inspection” was not carried out until two-and-a-half months after work started, by which time small cracks had started to appear.
“It's neither right nor just that … two or three huge, mammoth trucks and bulldozers would park outside my driveway and be there for over one-and-a-half years, and they have the audacity to tell me that the cracks in my front room have nothing to do with the work being conducted right outside my doorstep,” she wrote.
Kogarah MP Chris Minns told Parliament he believed there was “compelling evidence the violent change to the topography of the area has caused significant damage to some homes”.
He said the engineers’ reports that they "cannot ascertain" the cracks were a direct result of the work placed the burden of proof on the home owners even though they had nothing to do with the changes to their houses.
“This leaves local residents with nowhere to go and, even worse, local residents and members of Parliament were assured that this would not be the case,” he said.
“I can appreciate that in large and complex projects mistakes and damage will occur, but refusing to deal with valid claims will undermine community confidence in this project.”
A spokeswoman for Sydney Motorway Corporation said the contractor engaged an independent, experienced engineer to assess the properties before construction commenced and after completion.
”Based on these assessments, there was no damage to either of these properties that could be attributed to the construction work,” she said.
“Assessment reports have been provided to these property owners.”
