thewest.com.au - 11th May 2009

High-tech highway to South-West geared for early July opening

Relief is in sight for travellers between the city and the South-West with the new Perth to Bunbury highway just weeks away.

The road, which will cut half an hour from travelling time between the two centres, is expected to be opened in early July by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The $705 million, 70.5km project is well ahead of schedule because of high-tech computer surveying and the long spell of fine weather.

Sources in Canberra say a number of dates have been earmarked.

The highway, the biggest single road project in WA, consists of a 30km extension to the Kwinana Freeway and 40.5km of dual carriageway, called the John Forrest Highway, that connects the end of the lengthened freeway to the start of the Old Coast Road’s dual carriageway just south of Lake Clifton.

It is estimated that it will take 30 minutes off the journey to Bunbury and eliminate the frequent two-hour delays on holiday weekends.

The builders, Southern Gateway Alliance, used advanced positioning technology to enable survey and planning data to be transmitted straight from the design office to computers in the graders and bulldozers.

This, combined with Germanmade surfacing machines that can lay the entire width of the 11.7m carriage way in one pass, has slashed six months off the construction time.

Tourism Council WA chief executive Graham Moss said that the highway would have a positive impact on tourism, with an immediate increase in travellers heading south.

The road corridor between Perth and Bunbury is WA’s most important, with the majority of the annual 4.3 million journeys to and from the South-West taken by car on the Old Coast Road.

Ian Simmonds, managing director of Hospitality Industry Marketing Services, said the opening would be a great boost.

“There is no doubt people think twice about travelling down south in peak times because of the bottleneck in Mandurah,” he said.

Tourism and RAC officials believe the new dual-carriageway will also take traffic from the single-lane South Western Highway.

Importantly, the new highway will provide an alternative to the Old Coast Road, which has been rated as the most dangerous section of Federal highway in the State with a horrific safety record of at least 43 crashes with five deaths in the past six years.

GEOFFREY THOMAS