Colin Barnett.
Yes that is right. We now have the choice to visit the disastrous, ill-conceived, urban mess that is Mandurah. The fact the entire southbound population was forced through this bottleneck, planning failure for years was too much to deal with.
3.8 million man hours of labour has trimmed half an hour off the journey to Bunbury from Perth of which millions of commuters will be eternally grateful for. $705 million has gone into 70.5km of dual carriageway with six interchanges, 10 intersections and 19 bridges.
This is an enormous amount of capital to inject into infrastructure. Infrastructure that can be argued adds little to the social fabric of Perth and has massive ongoing maintenance costs. Further to drive in our little metal boxes some say. Further to push the ill-conceived ideals of suburban-inclined developers others say. Though the freeway isn't the problem here. It's our mentality toward living and how lifestyle is portrayed to homebuyers.
Dale Alcock's latitude range
This freeway extension bypasses Mandurah, and consequently the development that has occurred along Mandurah's Old Coast Road. Look either side past the coastal dunes and you'll see what occurs in every city that experienced rapid growth in the 20th century. A road (not a freeway) that was never designed or adapted to the vast amount of suburban development that occurred along its edges. Traffic that wanted to get through but needed to wait at a set of lights along a primary arterial link. As Perth city grew along the coast, so did congestion along the Old Coast Road. It was not uncommon on any long weekend, when thousands flocked south for their holidays, to see bumper to bumper traffic from Baldivis to Dawesville. Many cursed the traffic, though it is not the traffic. It is development models that are accepted, misunderstood and not challenged.
Ad-hoc suburban development reliant on the automobile led to the need for a bypass of this size. It exists now. The decision to build it and complete it was made and executed. What we need is for urban designers and planners to step up to the challenge and provide well considered economically viable solutions for the growth that will occur along the new freeway's periphery. The rash of suburbia has started to infect its edges already, though the difference is that this freeway, for now, has been executed with that in mind.
Ad-hoc suburban development reliant on the automobile led to the need for a bypass of this size. It exists now. The decision to build it and complete it was made and executed. What we need is for urban designers and planners to step up to the challenge and provide well considered economically viable solutions for the growth that will occur along the new freeway's periphery. The rash of suburbia has started to infect its edges already, though the difference is that this freeway, for now, has been executed with that in mind.
