- McGowan Government progresses major road building program across Perth
- All metropolitan roads announced as election commitments underway now or starting soon
- Pipeline of road upgrades, combined with METRONET, creating thousands of jobs
- Contract award of Armadale Road to North Lake Road Bridge announced today
- Several projects funded by reallocating money from flawed Perth Freight Link project
Premier Mark McGowan and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti are today visiting seven of 30 major metropolitan road projects or sites that are either under construction now or starting soon.
These projects alone are creating more than 3,200 new WA jobs, with work supporting local Western Australian businesses and tradespeople.
Five out of the seven projects are part of the 17 'Boosting Jobs, Busting Congestion' projects launched by the McGowan Government in 2017 and are fully funded as part of the redirection of funds from the flawed Perth Freight Link project.
The cost of congestion to Perth's economy is currently around $1.6 billion a year, however, this will be slashed significantly upon completion of all of the scheduled road upgrades.
The recent contract awards for the Kalamunda Road-Roe Highway interchange and Armadale Road-North Lake Road Bridge, means all but one of the McGowan Government's metropolitan road upgrade election commitments are now contracted.
Main Roads Western Australia is also expecting to award the contract for the upgrade of High Street in Fremantle in coming months.
Roads are just the start of the transformation of Perth's transport network, with a number of METRONET rail projects gearing up for construction to start later this year.
Today, the Premier and Minister will visit several locations across the suburbs:
- $49 million Kwinana Freeway northbound widening from Russell Road to Roe Highway (under construction, due to be completed in late 2019);
- $237 million Armadale Road to North Lake Road Bridge (contract awarded this week, due to be completed in late 2021);
- $145 million Armadale Road widening from Anstey Road to Tapper Road (under construction, due to be completed in late 2019);
- $93 million Welshpool Road and Leach Highway grade separation (planning phase);
- $65 million Wanneroo Road and Ocean Reef Road interchange (under construction, due to be completed in late 2020);
- $125 million committed for Stephenson Avenue extension (Statement of Intent with City of Stirling signed today, work starting shortly on phase one and overall project due to start in 2020); and
- $40 million Mitchell Freeway southbound widening (under construction, due to be completed in late 2019).
Meanwhile, the Premier and Minister will also inspect the trial use of recycled materials on the Kwinana Freeway widening project between Russell Road and Roe Highway.
The pilot project will use up to 10,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste as pavement and sub-base to reduce reliance on mined materials and to prevent the material going to landfill.
Comments attributed to Premier Mark McGowan:
"We came into government with a clear plan to fix congestion across the suburbs and to create local jobs in the process.
"Cancelling the flawed Perth Freight Link allowed us to redirect funding to other important projects across the State, and also enabled us to transfer workers to projects like the Armadale Road dual carriageway, so they could get underway sooner.
"We're getting on with the job and getting these projects built, as we promised.
"The bottom line is that Western Australians will soon spend less time stuck in traffic and more time in the places they need to be, all the while creating jobs throughout the construction industry supply chain.
Comments attributed to Transport Minister Rita Saffioti:
"It's hard to think of a time when there was more construction activity happening across the suburban road network.
"These road projects will work together with METRONET to make people's lives that little bit easier - getting them to work, home, school or elsewhere sooner.
"This involves creating overpasses where traffic lights currently cause traffic jams, adding more capacity to our freeways and busy roads, and building new roads in some cases.
"Most of these projects were only made possible by redirecting the funding that would have been used to build the flawed Perth Freight Link.
"We have worked with industry to create a pipeline of works to create job security and apprenticeships across projects."
Premier's office - 6552 5000
Transport Minister's office - 6552 5500
