The cities of Armadale and Cockburn have leapt to defend the necessity of the proposed $160 million North Lake Road Bridge following comments from Liberal candidate for Burt Matt O’Sullivan he wanted more evidence on the project.
When responding to questions about the Labor party’s recent $80 million commitment to the project Mr O’Sullivan said not many people he had spoken to had raised it as an issue.
He said the widening of Armadale Road, which the party had already committed to, was a more pressing issue for residents.
On Monday the Community Connect South campaign, the Cockburn and Armadale campaign to secure funding for project, released a statement that said the bridge was the best congestion buster for the area.
The statement said recent microsimulation modelling of traffic in Cockburn Central by Main Roads revealed a direct bridge connection between North Lake and Armadale roads as the best solution.
It said results indicated the bridge would lower journey times with a more even split of traffic between Armadale and North Lake roads and Beeliar Drive.
Armadale mayor Henry Zelones said the study confirmed the need for the bridge if congestion around Cockburn Central was to be reduced.
“In evening peak hour, the simulation shows that Armadale Road/North Lake Road would take 45 per cent of the traffic and Beeliar Drive 55 per cent,” he said.
“People travelling on the newly-widened Armadale Road do not want to be spending their time in a queue at the Kwinana Freeway.”
Cockburn mayor Logan Howlett said the option of a more direct connection from North Lake Road into Armadale Road was essential to create an east-west through-route linking people to jobs.
“With the planned widening of Armadale Road, traffic will only further bottleneck in the Cockburn Central area,” he said.
“This infrastructure solution will provide better linkages between the two major economic centres of Armadale and Cockburn Central and take some of the burden off Beeliar Drive.
“We are planning ahead to the year 2031 and beyond and this vital piece of infrastructure would allow both cities to make a complementary investment of $36 million in local road improvements that interface with the project.”
For more information visit ccsouth.info.
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