The North Lake Road Bridge could be a deciding factor in the upcoming election for the new seat of Burt following results of a June 13 Reachtel poll commissioned by the City of Armadale.
Reachtel conducted a survey of more than 1000 residents in suburbs such as Armadale, Seville Grove, Haynes, Forrestdale, Piara Waters and Harrisdale.
More than 83 per cent of respondents said congestion on Armadale Road and access to Cockburn and the Kwinana Freeway was an issue and more than 70 per cent believed it attributed to traffic on Ranford Road.
More than 82 per cent of respondents support building the North Lake Road Bridge and 54 per cent said they would be more likely to vote for a party who is committed to building the bridge.
Interestingly more Liberal voters supported the project compared to Labor voters with 85 per cent to 83 per cent respectively.
The poll also found if the Burt election was held this week the Labor party would walk away with 34 per cent of the first preference vote while the Liberal party would receive 30.8 per cent.
Currently the only party to commit to the bridge is the Labor party who committed $80million in federal funding in May.
Labor candidate Matt Keogh said the polls confirmed what they had already known.
“The polling really bears out what we already knew from the 100s of conversations, the 1000s of conversations we’ve been having with people,” he said.
“We know that its something that people desperately want and we need to make sure that our city functions properly so we can connect our people in Burt to the jobs they need.”
Liberal candidate for Burt Matt O’Sullivan has previously said he wanted to find out more about the project but has made no funding announcement.
He said he wouldn’t comment on the polling specifically but said he was fighting for the bridge.
“I see the proposed North Lake Road flyover bridge is an important part of the traffic solutions for the area and I’ll fight to ensure funding for it for this project is delivered at the appropriate time.
“This is of course on top of what we’re already doing which is the widening of the road.”
