Dr Dennis Jensen - Vision and Issues

Roads

Roads are a critical part of transportation infrastructure, yet the state government is deleting critical road corridors for political advantage. Roe Stage 8 and the Fremantle Eastern Bypass are parts of a ring road that has been planned for over 40 years, yet for some strange political reasons, the state Labor party has chosen to delete the bypass and stall Roe 8 (indeed, the design of the Roe/Kwinana Freeway interchange is designed to make the completion of Roe 8 difficult).

Worse than these issues is the blatant politically motivated expedient of getting trucks over a certain size to change routes. The measure was to save Tony McRae’s political hide at the last election. Basically, trucks that have traditionally used Leach Highway now have to use Roe Highway, but, given that Roe Highway is not completed, the trucks will only be able to go as far as the freeway. So the trucks then have to drive north along the freeway, and then back onto Leach Highway. This will only add to congestion, not only on Leach Highway west of the freeway, but also on the freeway itself. Furthermore, there will be significantly increased traffic noise both at the Roe Highway and Leach Highway intersections.

The state government are also complaining about the Federal Government not contributing half the money required for the Peel Bypass. The facts are as follows: Alannah MacTiernan gave the federal government a figure of $300 million for the completion of the bypass. The Federal Government not only contributed an initial amount of $150 million towards the project, but then added a further $20 million, making a total contribution of $170 million. The project has blown out to $450 million due to the totally inept “planning” by said minister and department, and due to delays to the project (which not surprisingly are caused by another project “blow out” – the Mandurah Railway ). Now she expects the Federal Government to contribute to half of the blow out caused by her ineptitude! Perhaps “MacBlowout” is more appropriate than MacTiernan? So, when you next see the state government’s propaganda on the issue, think of the facts.