Latest news with #PhilMiles
The Advertiser
01-08-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Port Stephens Council looks to sell off land to pay for road repairs
Port Stephens Council is considering selling off 11 parcels of land to help raise funds for the repair of its pothole-plagued road network. The land, classified as disused road reserves, is spread across the local government area. Lots range from prime waterfront at 201 Soldiers Point Road, Salamander Bay, to a road reserve at Six Mile Road, Eagleton. The council has committed to spending $29 million on its Roads Acceleration Program (RAP) over the next three years, but it is about $10 million short. The funding sources include the existing road investment of $3 million, $7.1 million from the special rate variation, $10 million in state and federal grant funding, the reallocation of up to $3 million from the natural disaster reserve and the proceeds from the sale of surplus land previously approved by the council. The original RAP investment was $20 million; however, the council voted on June 11 to commit an additional $9 million over the next three years. The funds will be distributed evenly across the local government area. "We've been working hard to find ways to fast-track road improvements across Port Stephens," acting director of facilities and infrastructure Phil Miles said. "Selling surplus road reserves is one way we can raise additional funds to repair and improve our roads." Not everyone is happy with the proposed sell-off. Salamander Bay residents have launched a petition calling for 199 and 201 Soldiers Point Road to be removed from the list. "The proposed sale would negatively impact our community by reducing access to recreational space, disrupting the local ecosystem, and diminishing the overall quality of life and visual amenity in our neighbourhood," the petition says. "We urge Port Stephens Council to reconsider this decision and explore alternative solutions that prioritise the needs of the community and the environment." Corlette resident Grant Kennett said he doubted all of the blocks would be sold. "Experience tells me that what people fear is going to happen doesn't always happen. Generally speaking, you end up with a bit of a compromise," he said. "I suspect all of the blocks won't be sold; I think they (the council) will take whatever they can get." The reserves identified for potential closure and sale are now on public exhibition. A formal resolution from the council will be required to sell the land at market value, which would be determined by an independent valuer. Any funds raised from the sale of the reserves could only be used for the repair and upgrade of the road network. Port Stephens Council is considering selling off 11 parcels of land to help raise funds for the repair of its pothole-plagued road network. The land, classified as disused road reserves, is spread across the local government area. Lots range from prime waterfront at 201 Soldiers Point Road, Salamander Bay, to a road reserve at Six Mile Road, Eagleton. The council has committed to spending $29 million on its Roads Acceleration Program (RAP) over the next three years, but it is about $10 million short. The funding sources include the existing road investment of $3 million, $7.1 million from the special rate variation, $10 million in state and federal grant funding, the reallocation of up to $3 million from the natural disaster reserve and the proceeds from the sale of surplus land previously approved by the council. The original RAP investment was $20 million; however, the council voted on June 11 to commit an additional $9 million over the next three years. The funds will be distributed evenly across the local government area. "We've been working hard to find ways to fast-track road improvements across Port Stephens," acting director of facilities and infrastructure Phil Miles said. "Selling surplus road reserves is one way we can raise additional funds to repair and improve our roads." Not everyone is happy with the proposed sell-off. Salamander Bay residents have launched a petition calling for 199 and 201 Soldiers Point Road to be removed from the list. "The proposed sale would negatively impact our community by reducing access to recreational space, disrupting the local ecosystem, and diminishing the overall quality of life and visual amenity in our neighbourhood," the petition says. "We urge Port Stephens Council to reconsider this decision and explore alternative solutions that prioritise the needs of the community and the environment." Corlette resident Grant Kennett said he doubted all of the blocks would be sold. "Experience tells me that what people fear is going to happen doesn't always happen. Generally speaking, you end up with a bit of a compromise," he said. "I suspect all of the blocks won't be sold; I think they (the council) will take whatever they can get." The reserves identified for potential closure and sale are now on public exhibition. A formal resolution from the council will be required to sell the land at market value, which would be determined by an independent valuer. Any funds raised from the sale of the reserves could only be used for the repair and upgrade of the road network. Port Stephens Council is considering selling off 11 parcels of land to help raise funds for the repair of its pothole-plagued road network. The land, classified as disused road reserves, is spread across the local government area. Lots range from prime waterfront at 201 Soldiers Point Road, Salamander Bay, to a road reserve at Six Mile Road, Eagleton. The council has committed to spending $29 million on its Roads Acceleration Program (RAP) over the next three years, but it is about $10 million short. The funding sources include the existing road investment of $3 million, $7.1 million from the special rate variation, $10 million in state and federal grant funding, the reallocation of up to $3 million from the natural disaster reserve and the proceeds from the sale of surplus land previously approved by the council. The original RAP investment was $20 million; however, the council voted on June 11 to commit an additional $9 million over the next three years. The funds will be distributed evenly across the local government area. "We've been working hard to find ways to fast-track road improvements across Port Stephens," acting director of facilities and infrastructure Phil Miles said. "Selling surplus road reserves is one way we can raise additional funds to repair and improve our roads." Not everyone is happy with the proposed sell-off. Salamander Bay residents have launched a petition calling for 199 and 201 Soldiers Point Road to be removed from the list. "The proposed sale would negatively impact our community by reducing access to recreational space, disrupting the local ecosystem, and diminishing the overall quality of life and visual amenity in our neighbourhood," the petition says. "We urge Port Stephens Council to reconsider this decision and explore alternative solutions that prioritise the needs of the community and the environment." Corlette resident Grant Kennett said he doubted all of the blocks would be sold. "Experience tells me that what people fear is going to happen doesn't always happen. Generally speaking, you end up with a bit of a compromise," he said. "I suspect all of the blocks won't be sold; I think they (the council) will take whatever they can get." The reserves identified for potential closure and sale are now on public exhibition. A formal resolution from the council will be required to sell the land at market value, which would be determined by an independent valuer. Any funds raised from the sale of the reserves could only be used for the repair and upgrade of the road network. Port Stephens Council is considering selling off 11 parcels of land to help raise funds for the repair of its pothole-plagued road network. The land, classified as disused road reserves, is spread across the local government area. Lots range from prime waterfront at 201 Soldiers Point Road, Salamander Bay, to a road reserve at Six Mile Road, Eagleton. The council has committed to spending $29 million on its Roads Acceleration Program (RAP) over the next three years, but it is about $10 million short. The funding sources include the existing road investment of $3 million, $7.1 million from the special rate variation, $10 million in state and federal grant funding, the reallocation of up to $3 million from the natural disaster reserve and the proceeds from the sale of surplus land previously approved by the council. The original RAP investment was $20 million; however, the council voted on June 11 to commit an additional $9 million over the next three years. The funds will be distributed evenly across the local government area. "We've been working hard to find ways to fast-track road improvements across Port Stephens," acting director of facilities and infrastructure Phil Miles said. "Selling surplus road reserves is one way we can raise additional funds to repair and improve our roads." Not everyone is happy with the proposed sell-off. Salamander Bay residents have launched a petition calling for 199 and 201 Soldiers Point Road to be removed from the list. "The proposed sale would negatively impact our community by reducing access to recreational space, disrupting the local ecosystem, and diminishing the overall quality of life and visual amenity in our neighbourhood," the petition says. "We urge Port Stephens Council to reconsider this decision and explore alternative solutions that prioritise the needs of the community and the environment." Corlette resident Grant Kennett said he doubted all of the blocks would be sold. "Experience tells me that what people fear is going to happen doesn't always happen. Generally speaking, you end up with a bit of a compromise," he said. "I suspect all of the blocks won't be sold; I think they (the council) will take whatever they can get." The reserves identified for potential closure and sale are now on public exhibition. A formal resolution from the council will be required to sell the land at market value, which would be determined by an independent valuer. Any funds raised from the sale of the reserves could only be used for the repair and upgrade of the road network.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Major storms on Jupiter can leave a fingerprint in the planet's atmosphere
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. It would appear that a really big storm on Jupiter can leave a noticeable mark in the planet's atmosphere. A recent study tapped into data collected by the Jupiter-orbiting spacecraft Juno and the Hubble Space Telescope to start piecing together how this gas giant's storms churn up the world's atmosphere — even surprisingly far below the clouds. This churning involves the storms dredging up ammonia in some places and hurling it far into the Jovian depths as slushy hailstones in others. The result, it appears, is that patches of ammonia gas end up buried deep in some parts of Jupiter's lower atmosphere, while other areas have far less ammonia than they normally would. In other words, some storms on Jupiter can leave behind a fingerprint, reworking the whole chemical makeup of the planet's atmosphere. A huge storm on Jupiter broke out in December of 2016, just south of the planet's equator and about 60 degrees east of the famous Great Red Spot. Amateur astronomer Phil Miles was the first to spot this storm in February of 2017 — and the timing couldn't have been better. Juno was about to make its fourth close flyby of Jupiter, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array here on Earth, along with the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit, were also pointed at the gas giant. This meant astronomers could see Jupiter in different wavelengths of light at the same time. Armed with data from three observatories, University of California, Berkeley, planetary scientist Chris Moeckel and his colleagues just needed to figure out what kinds of updrafts, downdrafts and heat transfer could best explain what Juno, Hubble and ALMA saw during and after the storm. The team simulated the inner workings of Jupiter's atmosphere, which revealed that the massive storm had stirred up the planet's atmosphere dozens of miles below even the lowest-hanging cloud decks. To understand exactly what that means, we first need to understand one of the quirks of describing the weather on Jupiter. It's hard to measure altitudes in Jupiter's atmosphere, because the planet doesn't have a surface in the usual sense (there's liquid somewhere below all those deep layers of gas, but it's never been directly measured), so scientists rely on pressure instead. There's a level in Jupiter's middle stratosphere at which the atmospheric pressure is about the same as it is at sea level here on Earth, and that makes a useful baseline for saying how deep things are in Jupiter's atmosphere. The dense, heavy water vapor clouds where huge Jovian storms begin are about 82 miles (132 kilometers) below that level, where the air pressure is about 10 times higher than it is at sea level on Earth. Furthermore, Juno's data suggests the lowest-hanging clouds present during the early 2017 storm loomed several miles lower than even that level — thus, in the storm's wake, the atmosphere had been stirred up deep, deep below the clouds. Juno and Hubble images from 2017 showed a powerful updraft near the heart of the storm, pumping ammonia from deep within Jupiter's atmosphere and rushing it upward to the peaks of the towering storm clouds. Below that plume, Juno and Hubble saw that the updraft had "dried out" most of the ammonia from a patch of Jupiter's atmosphere stretching down at least tens of miles below the base of the storm clouds. Wrapped around the bright spot of the updraft, darker patches shown in Juno's data mark where downdrafts carried a slushy mix of ammonia and water back down to the Jovian depths. And surprisingly, the ammonia was plunging much deeper into the atmosphere than Moeckel and his colleagues expected. If the clouds in the early 2017 storm had just been raining big liquid droplets of ammonia, they shouldn't have been able to fall very deep into the atmosphere before the higher temperature and pressure evaporated the droplets — and the resulting gas wouldn't keep falling. It would just hang out, forming a new ammonia gas layer. But instead, the ammonia fell deeper — according to Moeckel and his colleagues' simulations, down to a depth where the pressure in Jupiter's atmosphere is about 30 times higher than that at sea level on Earth. That means the storm was most likely dropping down big, slushy mush balls of mixed water and ammonia. Mush balls are a weird weather phenomenon on Jupiter that astronomers first pieced together (also from Juno data) a few years ago. Related Stories: — NASA's Juno probe sees active volcanic eruptions on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io (images) — NASA's Juno probe spots massive new volcano on Jupiter moon Io — Jupiter's volcanic moon Io may spew sulfur to icy neighbor Europa's surface Ammonia stays liquid at much lower temperatures than water can, which means droplets of liquid ammonia can mingle with icy crystals of water in Jupiter's storm clouds. The resulting mix is a ball of slush just solid enough to stay together, but definitely mushier than, say, a hailstone; picture a wet snowball. And mush balls raining out of a storm could fall much faster than raindrops, so they'd make it much farther before succumbing to evaporation. The result is that deep within Jupiter's atmosphere, there are patches of ammonia that fell as mush balls from storms raging dozens of miles above – and that ammonia will stay buried down there until the next big storm dredges it up. The scientists published their work on March 28 in the journal Science Advances.
