City of Armadale mayor Henry Zelones has seen enough major infrastructure projects come and go to know if a local government does not fight for them, they will not happen.
He said if the city did not fight for the Tonkin Highway extension in the early 2000s it would have been thrown in the trash.
Mr Zelones said this is why they were pushing so hard for a commitment from the Liberal Party to build the Armadale Road Bridge over the Kwinana Freeway.
“In the mid 90s everything seemed to be hunky dory but by the early 2000s we were notified they were going to cancel the Tonkin Highway reservation, either giving or selling the land mostly back to the owners,” he said.
“When we found out we approached both parties and got commitments from both of them saying they would proceed with the project.
“That’s when we picked up on the fact that we just can’t sit on our hands and hope that they do it.
“We actually have to get in there and be actively involved in pointing out the issues.
“But also we cant go with our hands open saying give us some money, we have to go there with the research with the numbers.”
The city is now applying the same methodology to the Armadale Road Bridge except this time they have a mate alongside them, the City of Cockburn.
The two cities successfully sealed a federal funding commitment for the Armadale Road widening project during the 2015 Canning by election but still need the bridge to complete the project.
They launched phase three of their Community Connect South campaign to see if they can get a commitment from the Liberal Party toward the project.
Labor committed to the project in January with funding coming from scrapping Roe 8.
Mr Zelones said widening Armadale Road without building the Bridge would only push congestion further into Cockburn Central.
“The intersection at Armadale Road, Kwinana Freeway and Beeliar Drive is the seventh most congested intersection in Perth and the second for traffic congestion in Perth’s southern suburbs yet there is no funding allocated to fix the issue,” he said.
Residents are behind them as well.
Piara Waters resident Emma Gibson works in O’Conner and travels Armadale Road into Cockburn Central every day and said it’s a nightmare.
“The congestion outside Cockburn Gateways is so busy and there are so many crashes every week,” she said.
She said a bridge connection to North Lake Road could save her up to 15 minutes some days on her drive to work.
The bridge was expected to reduce the number of vehicles on Beeliar Drive by 34 per cent.
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