BARRY HEALY is a Fremantle resident and member of the Fremantle Road to Rail campaign

Fremantle council hosted a community consultation on Saturday March 2 in the council reception room to discuss the status of proposals to upgrade the High Street/Stirling Highway intersection.

While it is understandable residents should feel cynical about these discussions, after so many years of chatter and nothing to show for it, it is essential that people at least went along to speak and be heard.

This matter affects a very wide number of residents.

I believe WA Main Roads is poised to construct a six-lane road at the intersection and construction will be the centrepiece of a larger jigsaw that includes the Roe 8 extension, turning Stock Road effectively into a freeway, widening Stirling Highway and bulldozing a swathe of North Fremantle.

Redundant

All that to make it easier for trucks to transport containers to and from Fremantle Port—a redundant technology that is increasing the spread of diesel particulate pollution over our community, choking our roads and assailing residents with dangerous levels of noise.

In August 2011 Fremantle council voted to present road-building authorities with a list of conditions that were essential for consideration of any plans.

It included: that the High Street road reserve not be widened past the present four lanes, that any road design must include pedestrian overpasses and underpasses and that the community be properly consulted about any proposals.

For more than 12 months the community has waited in vain for Main Roads to consult. In exasperation the Gibson Park precinct committee approached Mayor Brad Pettitt to instigate the consultation on March 2.

Additionally, the precinct has voted to oppose road plans that allow for an increase in truck numbers over 2011 levels.

At present there is an “in-principle” design that Main Roads has presented to council.  It includes: widening the road reserve to six lanes, no provisions for pedestrians to cross and, so far, a complete absence of consultation.

The design carries the title “Safe Systems Approach”, an example of the wonders of modern spin given the approach involves digging a five-metre deep ditch and increasing the size, the speed and the numbers of trucks, the amount of diesel particulate pollution by at least half again, raise noise levels and produce more dangerous interactions between cars and heavy vehicles.

Yet again, the authorities are taking advantage of the dangerous situation at the High Street/Stirling Highway corner to create a truck-friendly corner, not a safe corner.

The first step towards making the corner safe is to change the mix of container transport to the port. Rail must be the major component and trucks the minor part.

With the pressure of trucks removed, the physical problems and design issues of the corner become simpler.

Traffic currently travelling from the port congests at the corner of High Street while waiting for traffic travelling east along High Street to pass. That congestion is easy to remove.

At present there are two lanes of traffic that head east along High Street.

If the left hand lane were made into a turn-left-only lane at Stirling Highway it would eliminate the need for those vehicles turning from Stirling Highway into High Street to wait at the corner.

Similarly, at present High Street heading west has a turn-right slip lane at Stirling Highway.

If the right-hand road lane were converted to a right-turn-only lane (leaving one lane for vehicles heading towards Fremantle) the needs of safety would be satisfied.

All of this would cost a meagre fraction of the $68 million the Barnett government is proposing for its road works. It could be done without any complicated permissions being obtained and no houses would be demolished.

But that is the last thing the authorities appear to want. Using the rubric of the “Safe Systems Approach” they want to build a truck conduit to the port—effectively a noisy, dangerous pollution sewer.

Carcinogen

The World Health Organization last year declared diesel particulate pollution a Category 1 carcinogen and the health effects of noise are well documented. Yet the WA transport department has refused to monitor pollution and no authority is interested in a base line health survey.

Without the fundamental data the authorities cannot say that their proposals are a “Safe System Approach”.

The momentum of bureaucratic and government planning on this can appear unstoppable, unless we unleash people power.

The people of Fremantle must say clearly we do not want our community swamped with carcinogenic diesel particulate pollution, that we want a safe corner at High Street, not a truck corner, that we want the major freight task of Fremantle Port to be handled by rail with trucks as an adjunct and that we are no longer prepared to be sidelined by the government and its bureaucrats.