The WA Liberals have again matched a Labor re-election commitment in the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale on one of the shire’s key advocacy priorities.
The Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale has welcomed the announcement from the WA Liberal Party that if elected they would commit $17 million to upgrade key intersections on Kargotich Road.
The shire’s population is predicted to double to nearly 70,000 residents by 2036, and with construction starting on the $1 billion Tonkin Highway extension starting this year, pressure on SJ’s local roads will get worse.
Shire President Rob Coales said that it was great that the WA Liberal Party recognised that the shire’s local road system, and Kargotich Road in particular, was struggling.
“We know that many of the shire’s roads are in poor or very poor condition. The bottom line here is road safety – for our residents and the increasing number of visitors to the shire,” President Coales said.
“Kargotich Road has been identified by the shire as a priority for upgrade, based on crash data, current and future traffic volumes and classification, road condition and future growth and development in the area.
“As one of the fastest growing communities in the country, we simply cannot keep up with improvements to vital infrastructure, particularly our roads which just weren’t built for this level of traffic.
“It’s not just road safety that’s affected by lack of external investment available for upgrades – it also affects our ability to build further infrastructure such as housing.
“This announcement by the WA Liberal Party of a substantial funding commitment is great news, and we look forward to receiving more support for our roads projects at the Federal level.”
The Shire was seeking $44.2 million to urgently action upgrades and improvements to nine priority roads.
It now has bipartisan support for its top three road advocacy projects, with the WA Labor Party and Nationals WA making election funding commitments in recent weeks.
The Nationals WA said that if elected, $276 million would be made available as part of a WA-wide Safer Local Roads program. The announcement singled out the Shire’s Kargotich, Hopkinson and Abernethy Roads as particularly in need of urgent upgrade, describing them as ‘buckling under the strain of increasing traffic volumes and heavy vehicles.’
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).
