TACKLING CONGESTION
IN WA
ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE SPEAKS TO WA TRANSPORT MINISTER RITA SAFFIOTI TO DISCUSS THE GOVERNMENT’S PRIORITIES TO TACKLE CONGESTION AND THE ROAD TOLL THROUGH MAJOR PROJECTS AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES. Minister Saffioti says the third stage of Northlink will cut time between Morley-Ellebrook by 50 per cent.
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n 2015, Infrastructure Australia predicted that transport cost delays in Perth would grow at an average annual rate of around 11 per cent, from $2 billion in 2011 to $16 billion in 2031. The 2015 Australian Infrastructure Audit stated that in the absence of additional capacity, the northern corridor would likely become one of the most congested corridors in Perth and demand would well exceed capacity before 2031. That same year, the Office of the Auditor General doubled down in its assessment of Main Roads projects to address traffic congestion, concluding that neither Main Roads nor the Department of Transport had clear objectives, service performance standards and targets for managing congestion. In part, this was because there was no strategy to deal with it or agency. One of its views was that Main Roads did not have good information to inform traffic congestion decision-making and that, where possible, data should be collected in real-time. It recommended Main Roads, by the end of 2015, complete its review of data
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ROADS FEBRUARY 2020
and information and finalise a fiveyear congestion program, including an implementation plan with budgets and timelines and other recommendations. Five years down track under the purview of a new government, several key projects in rail and road, including NorthLink and the Armadale Road to North Lake Road Bridge, are seeking to address the challenge. WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti tells Roads & Infrastructure one of her main priorities is to improve congestion which she says has increased over the years. “We’ve got our freeway which is the main artery north and south and that has seen heavy congestion. We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new freeway projects across both the northern and southern freeway,” she says. “What we’ve seen across the network is congestion in key corridors where we’ve seen significant residential growth, for example in the Ellenbrook corridor.” She says that many roads, particularly in the outer suburbs, were not fit-for-purpose as they were built at a rural level. Projects
like the Armadale Road Duplication are therefore seeking to address congestion points in the southcorridor. Ms. Saffioti says that while across WA there have been some significant projects, the NorthLink is one that stands out as improving safety and efficiency for the trucking industry. At the time of the interview, she says the third stage was set to be open in several weeks’ time and cut travel time between Morley-Ellenbrook by half. “It’s a project that everyone that uses it agrees is transformational,” Ms. Saffioti says. The $1.02 billion NorthLink WA will link to Gateway WA and support regional traffic movements to commercial and industrial areas, including Malaga, Kewdale, Perth Airport and the CBD. With joint funding from the federal and state government, NorthLink aims to link Morley to Muchea and bust congestion. The Connecting People in Places 2018-19 Strategy highlights that in 201920, the government will complete the development of a consolidated five-year Congestion Strategy and Movement Program. Ms. Saffioti says that the strategy development is underway. HIGH-TECH VISION Following auditor general recommendations, the government in late 2018 launched the Road Network Operations Centre, a high-tech facility capable of managing traffic flow across the metropolitan region. “This give us real-time tracking of the network and we’re tracking all of our key roads in 27 segments across the entire network,” Ms. Saffioti says. She says the data helps to understand volumes of traffic and the efficiency of the network. “As a result it informs better infrastructure
