Ring road funding request moves forward

By Chris Thomson | posted on February 1, 2018

A RING ROAD that would take pressure off the state’s worst roundabout and improve truck transit to the Port of Albany could be built in three years if the ducks line up on a final funding submission to be lodged with the federal government next month.

This week, Main Roads Great Southern regional manager Andrew Duffield told The Weekender that Stage 1 of a funding request for the $172 million project had been submitted to Infrastructure Australia in October.

He said Stage 2, providing a focused rationale for the planned route, would be submitted next month for consideration under a national partnership agreement between the Commonwealth and Western Australia on road and rail projects.

“I guess we’re hoping that toward the middle of this year we’d have an indication as to whether the submission is successful or not,” Mr Duffield said.

“We’ve had support, anecdotally, from key players.”

The State has committed $35 million to the ring road project, about 20 per cent of the overall estimated cost.

Mr Duffield said the ring road would take pressure off the Albany Highway/Chester Pass Road roundabout, which carries 50,000 vehicles a day, including about 1000 heavy vehicles.

In terms of crash numbers, the roundabout is regional WA’s worst intersection, and the state’s worst roundabout, with 213 prangs causing $5,185,641 damage in the five years to the end of 2016.

“The project’s not about the roundabout per se,” he said.

“It’s about providing safe and efficient access for the long-term to the Port of Albany.”

Stage 1 of the road – Menang Drive, which connects Chester Pass Road to Albany Highway – was completed in 2007 at a cost of $15.9 million, but Stages 2 and 3 have since stalled for lack of funding.

Most of the ring road route would be 90km per hour, dropping down in speed as trucks and cars approach Frenchman Bay Road and continue along the foreshore to the port.

Mr Duffield said that, depending on cashflow from Canberra, the road would be built over a two-year period if funding can be secured.