A key election commitment made by WA Premier Roger Cook will come to fruition after all, as a $700 million Kwinana Freeway road widening project is confirmed.
With construction set to commence early next year, Transport Minister Rita Saffioti says new lanes will be added to key sections of the freeway including 11 kilometres between Russell Road and Mortimer Road.
“The upgrades will include a new lane in each direction between Russell Road and Mortimer Road, a new southbound lane on the 11-kilometre stretch between Roe Highway and Berrigan Drive and a new northbound lane between Russell Road to Beeliar Drive,” Saffioti said at a press conference on Sunday.
“It also includes new co-ordinated ramp signals that will stretch between Safety Bay Road and Roe Highway. So that will mean 42 kilometres of ramp signalling across the freeway.
“We’re also going to be able to upgrade the median and verge barriers in the middle of the freeway.”
Saffioti said the works will also include a new barrier to prevent cars from going onto the train tracks.
The project will stretch over 29 kilometres of the freeway with construction set to commence early next year and be completed in around two years.
“We expect the construction to commence in the first quarter of next year and take around two years to deliver. As I said, we expect some additional lanes to be accessible throughout that construction period to the end of 2028,” she said.
Currently, Saffioti said the estimated time delays during peak hour on the freeway are approximately 15 minutes.
“Additional lanes on freeways are always difficult to deliver, but it’s about trying to keep the existing traffic flowing as we deliver new lanes for future traffic,” she said.
“We apologise in advance. There will be inconvenience, but we’ll try and mitigate that inconvenience as much as possible through the use of on-site technology and also having our incident response teams available to clear any breakdowns or accidents as soon as possible.”
WA Labor made the election commitment in January 2025, with Cook making the announcement in his Kwinana electorate.
At the time Cook said he wanted the federal government to tip in half the cost – $350 million each.
On Sunday, he confirmed the project would be jointly funded.
“This is a $700 million project which will deliver upgrades to Kwinana Freeway between Roe Highway and Safety Bay Road, and support the creation of more than 4,000 jobs. Its part funded by my government and part funded by our great partners at the Albanese Labor government,” he said.
“At the last election, [we] made a commitment to widen the Kwinana Freeway, already a critical transport corridor, taking 100,000 vehicles a day.
“This is an important part of transport infrastructure, particularly in our fast-growing southern suburbs. Widening the Kwinana Freeway will get Western Australians home, get them to work, and get our transport industry moving.”
The announcement on Sunday also came with the appointment of the preferred proponent to build the project.
The consortium comprises CPB Contractors, McConnell Dowell Constructors, Arup Australia Projects, and Jacobs Group who will now begin negotiations with Main Roads WA prior to the contract award.
The last Kwinana Freeway widening works for southern suburbs commuters was completed in the 2010s.
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