WA Labor has pledged $17 million to fix three key intersections along Kargotich Road, if re-elected in March.
The shire’s local roads are coming under increasing pressure from residential development, and the $1 billion Tonkin Highway Extension is set to bring more heavy traffic to the area.
Shire President Rob Coales welcomed the announcement from the WA Labor Party, and said the funding would be used to build roundabouts at the Kargotich Road intersections with Abernethy, Orton and Gossage Roads.
“These are the top three road priorities the shire has been advocating for, so we are very happy with the announcement,” he said.
“Improving the standard of our local roads is our community’s number one priority. The funding would help the shire continue our journey of improving our local road network and keeping our community safe.”
But some residents believe the shire has wasted its political capital advocating for a roundabout at Kargotich and Abernethy when there was already an imperative for the Free Reformed School Association (FRSA) to take financial responsibility for its construction.
In March last year, council changed its tune and gave its blessing to a proposal by the FRSA to build a new K-12 college at that location, after the school association promised to cede a sizeable chunk of its lot and build a new roundabout at the intersection of Abernethy and Kargotich Rds. The FRSA also requested the shire’s help to attract funding to do so.
Oakford local Paul Speering stated at the time he believed the shire had “sold out for a roundabout” and a public footpath.
In April last year, the proposal was approved by the Metro Outer Development Assessment Panel (MODAP) with a list of conditions, one of those being:
“Prior to the lodgement of a Building Permit, plans are to be submitted to and approved by the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale demonstrating the provision by the applicant of a roundabout at the intersection of Abernethy Road and Kargotich Road. This roundabout must be fully constructed by the applicant, at its cost, in accordance with the approved plans prior to the commencement of the development’s operations. Should the shire receive a grant for the roundabout prior to the applicant commencing works on the roundabout, the applicant shall instead provide a monetary contribution to the shire to cover any residual amount not covered by the grant, to fully deliver the roundabout.”
Since then, locals have continually questioned why the intersection was priority one listed in the shire’s road upgrade advocacy plan. Especially when there are other roads needing upgrades that don’t have a financial fallback like this one clearly does.
“I would like some more information as to why there is almost $7 million in the budget allocated for the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Abernethy and Kargotich Roads,” Oakford’s Vanessa Reynolds said.
“At the OCM on 20 May 2024, President Coales stated that, in relation to the Hypergrowth Road Advocacy, there was some science behind the priority roads, they haven’t been “plucked”, [and] there is sense in the advocacy and road crash data to back it up. To date very little evidence of the so-called science used to support this priority list has been provided to the community,” Oakford’s Vanessa Reynolds said.
She said other intersections had proven to be more dangerous according to publicly available crash data.
“For example, the Kargotich and Abernethy Road intersection isn’t even in the top 20 for crash injury or frequency. So how does it get listed as the number one priority? How has that not been plucked? Can council provide the methodology used to produce this list?”
President Coales explained: “The shire has prioritised these three intersections along Kargotich Road for upgrading based on crash data, current and future traffic volumes, road condition and future growth and development in the area”.
But that doesn’t explain why the shire has gone in so hard to bat for taxpayer funding for a roundabout that was ultimately the financial responsibility of the Free Reformed School Association; in its initial proposal the FRSA outlined its plans to start construction on the senior school by 2028, with MODAP now stipulating the roundabout needs to be in place before that.
Regardless, the shire is now calling on the state Libs and Nats to match Labor’s $17 million funding promise.
The SJ Shire also intends to approach candidates in the upcoming federal government election to ask them to pay for upgrades to six other priority roads: Gossage, Orton, Abernethy, Nicholson, Hopkinson and Kargotich (north of Mundijong Rd).
But The Nationals WA candidate for Darling Range Morgan Byas has taken offence to this request, explaining his party had already promised back in October to commit $276 million to fix dangerous local roads around the state if elected to government in March.
He pointed out this was more than double the amount that Labor pledged to fix local government roads in WA last week.
The Nationals WA program is based on recommendations from the WA Local Government Association (WALGA) and the RAC, who have called for a total of $552 million in funding to be shared between the state and federal governments.
He also pointed out that Labor’s $17 million pledge “falls woefully short” of the $44.2 million total advocated for by the shire.
“This is yet another example of Labor’s chronic underfunding of our community. Whether it’s sporting infrastructure, community facilities, or now road safety, Labor’s priorities are clearly out of touch with what Darling Range needs,” he said.
The Nationals’ Safer Local Roads program is touted to cover 439 high-speed roads in regional and peri-urban areas – making up around one-third of WA’s sealed regional road network.
However, there is no indication yet which roads The Nationals intend to upgrade, or how much they will spend in the shire.
