Earlier in November a series of events were held in Albany to commemorate the 100th anniversary of troops departing Australia for the First World War and marked the start of the National commemorations for the Centenary of ANZAC. More than 40,000 people from around Australia attended this commemoration including the Governor General, the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers, the Premier and many other foreign dignitaries attracting worldwide attention to Albany.
Stakeholder engagement and pre-planning was a critical element for both events and our people played a leading role in ensuring strong coordination between key agencies including Police, Local Government and many other stakeholders. I believe our traffic and incident management teams did a fantastic job for both of these events ensuring the community was kept well informed in the lead up and during these events, minimising disruption and delays as much as was possible.
Keeping our customers at the forefront of everything we do is a key part of our strategic direction that was released during the year. Known as Keeping WA Moving, it focuses on creating and delivering value in the areas of customers, movement, sustainability and safety. More information on our strategic direction can be found throughout this report.
This year we invested more than $1.989 billion in delivering our programs and services, achieving 96% expenditure against our budget which is an excellent outcome. Reece has already mentioned the iconic Gateway Project and I congratulate everyone in the project team as this initiative continues to progress well ahead of schedule. He also mentioned the Perth Freight Link and I would encourage anyone interested to visit the project website to keep up to date with progress on this incredibly important project. This project is delivering not only a strategically important freight route but will also be instrumental in improving safety for all road users, improve access for residents and visitors in an around Fremantle, and will aid in reducing congestion.
In July last year we opened the $262 million Great Northern Highway Realignment at Port Hedland providing faster and safer trips for the more than 15,000 vehicles using that road every day. In February the 11 kilometre section of Great Northern Highway between Bindi Bind and Lyons East Road was opened improving freight productivity and safety. In May the new Seventh Avenue Bridge was opened replacing the original 1913 structure. The new bridge pays tribute to the historical significance of its predecessor.
Congestion continues to be one of our highest priorities. We have developed a five year Congestion Management Plan and are in the process of implementing a $40 million program to reduce congestion at key hotspots across Perth. This has included a traffic signal optimisation review program, clearway management, on-ramp merge trial and a work program to reduce traffic flow breakdown on major freeways and highways.
We have also been addressing the improvement opportunities and recommendations identified by the Auditor General. More information on our progress can be found in the Road Efficiency section.
In April we celebrated the Graham Farmer Freeway and Tunnel turning 15. More than a year since the addition of the extra lane either way has seen a marked increase in capacity in the tunnel with no compromise in safety. On average 118,000 vehicles per day use the tunnel, and since it opened, almost 455 million vehicles have gone through the tunnel.
The completion of 3.1 kilometres of additional Principal Shared Path links for pedestrians and cyclists within a 15 kilometre radius of Perth city was a great outcome given the growth in cycling over the last 12 months and goes towards supporting the Government’s four year $72 million investment in cycling.
Our business activities provide essential support services focussed around encouraging sustainable practices, enhancing customer relationships, investing in the future capabilities of our people and their safety, health and wellbeing. Some key achievements include:
Work is well underway on a range of significant major projects including commencement of work on Roe 8 and an announcement for the final route for Section Two of Perth Freight Link. We will finalise work on the Reid Highway/Malaga Interchange as part of a much larger $108 million project on Reid Highway which includes duplication and widening works. The Reid Highway/Malaga Interchange project is seen as a priority as this intersection was the second-worst black spot in the City of Swan.
The Gateway WA project is expected to be completed and open to traffic in early 2016 and work is already well underway on extending Mitchell Freeway to Hester Avenue and Kwinana Freeway widening from Roe Highway to Russell Road. Regionally our projects include upgrading various sections of Great Northern Highway as part of the Muchea to Wubin Stage 2 works; North West Coastal Highway Minilya to Barradale project; and South Western Highway and North West Coastal Highway. To see the latest on these and other works we are doing, please visit the projects section on our webpage.
Once again practical innovation will be high on our agenda as we continue relaxing wet weather asphalt restrictions by working closely with our industry partners to achieve a solution that is right for Western Australian conditions. We will also be enhancing our network performance data to ease traffic congestion, improve traffic flow and make more data available for our customers to assist with journey planning.
With the Road Safety Commission officially replacing the Office of Road Safety from 1 July 2015, we say farewell to our colleagues from the Office of Road Safety as they move out of Main Roads to form their own entity. We will continue to work very closely with the new Road Safety Commission to improve road safety and achieve the targets in the State’s Road Safety Strategy, Towards Zero.
In closing I would once again like to acknowledge and thank all of our people, contractors, suppliers and partners who bring all the planning, projects and support services to life. Their hard work, willingness to work together to solve problems and pride in their work is what allows our organisation to respond so effectively to the needs of our growing State.
Stephen Troughton
Managing Director
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