$40m plan to unclog Perth roads
The Barnett Government will target known congestion hotspots across the city with a $40 million Main Roads investment to be announced in next week's State Budget.
Key intersections will be modified, new road markings will be introduced on every freeway on-ramp to help motorists merge and more technology will be deployed, including an expansion of digital information signs.
There will also be more funding for Main Roads' rapid incident response service to expand its hours on the road and geographic spread.
The size of the new roads package is comparatively modest in the context of the Government's overall multibillion-dollar transport spend.
But with money tight and a big Budget deficit looming, Transport Minister Dean Nalder believes the investments will unchoke key intersections and get traffic moving.
"There is no simple solution to tackling congestion but by focusing on multiple measures, improvements will be noticeable in traffic flow and reliability," he said.
The biggest single spend, $14 million, will be on a series of reconfigurations to the intersection of Graham Farmer Freeway and East Parade in East Perth.
Southbound traffic on East Parade approaching the freeway will get a second dedicated right-turn lane and the eastbound freeway off-ramp will be revamped to prevent afternoon peak traffic backing up into the tunnel.
The Mitchell Freeway will get an extra northbound lane between Cedric Street and Karrinyup Road, costing $2.3 million.
In the northern suburbs, Marmion Avenue will get $4 million in intersection improvements at Hepburn Avenue and Whitfords Avenue.
There will be an additional southbound and northbound lane at Hepburn Avenue intersection. At the Whitfords Avenue intersection, single-turn right lanes will be turned into double lanes.
In Maddington, right-turn lanes on Tonkin Highway at Kelvin Road will be extended to prevent traffic bank-ups.
In a trial on Canning Highway from December, 10 intersections between Stock Road and Henley Street will have right-turn lights turned off between 9pm and 6am.
The idea is to avoid motorists waiting for red right-turn arrows to change when traffic is light.
There is $5.4 million for more digital variable information signs and $1 million for an expansion of Main Roads' incident response vehicles to clear breakdowns and accidents.
