Our Minister, Legislation, Role and Operations

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Responsible Minister

Honourable Rita Saffioti MLA Minister for Transport

Enabling Legislation

The Main Roads Act 1930, as amended, establishes the Commissioner of Main Roads as a corporate body and sets out the powers and duties of the office.

Our Role

Our role is to plan, build, maintain and operate Western Australia’s State Road Network valued at more than $48 billion. We work closely with our portfolio partners, the Department of Transport and the Public Transport Authority as well as local government to support the needs of all road users across the state by providing an integrated world- class road transport network.

Extent of Operations

We are one of the most geographically dispersed road agencies in the world, responsible for more than 18,500 kilometres of road spread over 2.5 million square kilometres.

Last year we engaged directly with more than 5,400 suppliers and made in the order of $2.174 billion in payments. Of our suppliers, 292 were state or local government agencies and 32 were research bodies or universities. The remainder are classified as contractors, consultants or suppliers and are predominately from the Western Australian economy. Our indirect supply chain is again more extensive with our construction projects engaging with multiple sub-contractors and suppliers.

Main Roads operates from eight regional locations throughout the state.

Region Population (000) Area Covered (000 km2) State Roads (km)
Goldfields-Esperance 55 941 2,202
Great Southern 61 49 1,609
Kimberley 36 419 2,243
Metropolitan 1,957 5 904
Mid West - Gascoyne Region 63 421 3,625
Pilbara 62 506 2,749
South West 285 29 1,764
Wheatbelt 76 157 3,476
Total 2,595 2,527 18,572