Back to help and advice menu

Westconnex: What to do if your home has been damaged

WestConnex is Sydney’s largest infrastructure project since the building of the Harbour Bridge in the 1920s. When completed in 2023, WestConnex will —

Connect Sydney’s east and west with 33 kilometers of new and upgraded roads
Cut 40 minutes off the trip from Parramatta to Sydney Airport, helping commuters bypass 52 sets of traffic lights
Provide connections for future projects that link the north shore, northern beaches, Sydney Airport and the southern suburbs
Bring in $20 billion worth of economic benefits to NSW

While there are many practical and economic benefits to the construction of WestConnex, the project has also had some side effects on local residents’ homes.

WestConnex’s side effects on your home

Since construction of WestConnex began in 2016, heavy vehicles and machinery have moved in, out, around and under WestConnex to carry out surface works.

Vibrations from this activity have caused the ground to become aerated and unstable. In turn, liquids, such as rain water or water from broken drainage systems have been able to seep into the ground, erode soil and create voids.

As a result, residents living in the area have seen damage done to their homes in many different ways. Homeowners living near the WestConnex project have most commonly seen their walls crack, ceilings crack and walls lean.

Some homeowners have even seen their homes slowly subside (sink) over the past 5 years.

WestConnex is now helping homeowners

The overarching intention of WestConnex has always been a positive one — to ease congestion throughout Sydney and all of it’s connecting communities.

With most of WestConnex running underground, it will eventually free up large areas. These will be transformed into more than 18 hectares of parks, playgrounds and recreational facilities.

On top of this, WestConnex will deliver more than 1 million trees and plants for a brighter, greener Sydney.

However, what homeowners living around WestConnex have had to go through since 2016 has been unfortunate. Now, WestConnex is paying for homes to be repaired if they’ve been heavily affected by tunneling.

WestConnex understands the distress it may have caused and is seeking to fix this.