Managing Director’s Review

The transport system is an integral part of the everyday lives of Western Australians and, in a state as large and diverse as ours, it is a critical element. In February this year we saw how ’fragile‘ the state’s single largest community asset can be when we experienced some of the worst flooding seen in the south of the state in more than 30 years. Crews from Main Roads along with our supply partners and local government colleagues reinstated more than 1,000 kilometres of road network in 88 Local Governments areas.

I was very proud of everyone in Main Roads who worked tirelessly to re-establish access for the community: creating detours and side tracks, building causeways, keeping the travelling public and local communities safe, and keeping communities informed of the condition of the road network as we assessed and repaired damage.

Our strategic direction 'Keeping WA Moving' continues to emphasise what is and will be important as we continue to focus on customers, movement, sustainability and safety. Following last year’s focus on congestion and road safety, this year has seen the release of a new Sustainability Policy focused on six key aspects and a reinvigorated approach as we seek to improve customer experience. There is more information on these initiatives throughout this report.

Our Operational Performance

This year saw a record investment of $2.28 billion through our six service areas as we continue to deliver safe, reliable and sustainable services to the community. The total value of our assets has reduced slightly to $46.3 billion reflecting a general decline in land values across the state. Road Efficiency continues to be the largest of our investment programs as we seek to reduce congestion in the metropolitan area through works on Graham Farmer Freeway, Tonkin Highway and the recently completed Charles Street Bus Bridge Project. In our rural areas, efficiency and productivity improvements include constructing road train assembly and parking facilities in the Mid West and Pilbara regions and widening road formations in the Pilbara and South West regions.

Work is well underway on delivering the $1.12 billion NorthLink WA initiative which is our largest ever road project. It will provide a state-of-the-art transport link between Morley and Muchea reducing travel times and creating significant productivity benefits to the economy, industry, motorists and the local community. The third and final contract was awarded in January 2017 and a ground breaking ceremony for the central section was held in June.

The Mitchell Freeway extension to Hester Avenue is planned to be completed and opened to traffic in August 2017. Parts of Hester Avenue and Wanneroo Road will be upgraded to dual carriageway standard. Neerabup Road is also being extended from Connolly Drive to Wanneroo Road. Other notable works undertaken in the past 12 months include completion of the Russell Road interchange and continuation of works on Great Northern Highway Stage 2 Muchea to Wubin, with traffic using the New Norcia Bypass since May. In addition the corridor for a future Bindoon Bypass has now been defined.

Road safety continues to be a serious concern with the road toll at the end of 2016 standing at 195, the highest number of fatalities in almost a decade. Already at the end of June this year 72 people have died on our roads. Our Road Safety Management System uses a holistic view seeking to manage the interaction between the road, travel speed, the vehicle and the road user.

I was very pleased to see the results from the independent review of our Run-off-Road Crash Treatment Program. Results show treatments reduced the frequency and severity of all run-off-road crashes by 35 per cent and reduced run-off-road killed and serious injury crashes by 26 per cent. We will continue to take important steps in new and innovative ways towards reducing road trauma, drawing on our own experiences and those of experts around the world.

Traffic congestion remains a high priority and we continue to trial and implement new treatments for congestion solutions on our roads. The Traffic Congestion Management Program has delivered a range of improvements across the metropolitan network. Traffic signal innovations have been implemented at more than 40 intersections and include yellow flashing caution lights, pedestrian countdown timers and right-turn filtering. A key milestone was the expansion of our Incident Response Services to seven-day coverage as well as patrolling more roads. During the past 12 months we have worked to optimise traffic signal timings at in excess of 400 sites on 23 routes across the metropolitan area resulting in improvements to journey times along the routes despite increases in traffic.

With road maintenance, we continue to responsibly manage the deferred maintenance task and we focus on reducing whole-of-life costs of our entire road network. Work progresses well as we transition from our Integrated Service Arrangements into our new maintenance contracts. Over the past 12 months we have finalised and confirmed the approach and contract model for each of our regional networks and have awarded the first two of a suite of 14 new contracts.

Business Activities

We rely on a variety of strong support services to ensure that the delivery of our projects and ongoing operations and management of the road network are done in a safe, reliable and sustainable way. We can achieve this, through strong environmental practices, well-focused customer activities and the right people in the right place at the right time.

We remain committed to responsible environmental stewardship and this year screened 298 projects of which 160 required further investigation through an Environmental Impact Assessment. In terms of Aboriginal heritage, we screened 451 projects of which 42 required further impact assessment resulting in 18 seeking further approval under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA).

We are continuing to develop and evolve our approach to customers with our move from focusing on customer service to considering the entire customer experience. This means placing even greater emphasis on all aspects of our engagement with our customers and stakeholders. Customers are a key focus of our strategic direction and we are committed to providing a transport network centred on what they need and value. Our community perception survey tells us that 87 per cent of the community are satisfied with our performance. However, there is always room for improvement.

This year our Reconciliation Action Plan has been redeveloped to align with a continued commitment to reconciliation in Australia. As part of our commitment to a diverse workforce we created the Senior Leadership Aboriginal Employment Initiatives Taskforce. The purpose of this group is to lead and champion facilitation of Aboriginal employment initiatives across Main Roads. This is a positive approach that stemmed from a challenge I initiated last year, generating strong interest and support across the organisation.

We held two employee surveys during the year. One was the regular Public Sector Commission employee survey which shows employee engagement across Main Roads has increased since our last survey in 2014 and is slightly higher than the public sector average. The second engagement survey was the Aon Hewitt Survey that enables us to benchmark against private industry and our public sector peers across Australasia. It was pleasing to see our engagement levels improve since 2012, the previous survey, and compare well to others in the sector. We have identified a small number of high priority initiatives that we will work on over the coming year as we seek to increase our employee engagement and satisfaction.

Future View

The next 12 months will be another big year for all of us at Main Roads and indeed across the Transport Portfolio. We have worked closely with government renegotiating funding arrangements associated with Perth Freight Link and for a new program as part of Boosting Jobs, Busting Congestion.

The Boosting Jobs, Busting Congestion package includes several large-scale road efficiency projects in the metropolitan area including Armadale Road Bridge over Kwinana Freeway, Wanneroo Road and Joondalup Drive grade separation, Roe Highway and Kalamunda Road interchange and delivering Perth’s first Smart Freeway on Kwinana northbound. As part of the overall package, the Australian Government provided $44.2 million towards a regional road safety program to improve road safety across Western Australia.

As part of our continuing effort to improve reliability and travel times across the metropolitan road network, a new state-of-the-art Road Network Operations Centre is being established. This fit for purpose facility will bring together operational teams currently located in East Perth and Northbridge. It will also accommodate Smart Freeway operations and other innovative technologies to manage road network performance.

I would like to thank everyone for their continued support. I am pleased with the efforts, determination, commitment and innovation that all in Main Roads have shown throughout the year. It’s at times of adversity such as the recent floods that the ability to adapt and work together effectively has seen us continue to be successful in what we do. This attitude, underpinned by our values, sees us successfully complete projects, respond during emergency situations and work with the community to create innovative solutions for issues as they arise. I look forward to another challenging and exciting year ahead.

 

Peter Woronzow
Acting Managing Director of Main Roads