LOCAL roads throughout Cockburn will have to double in size — even triple — if Roe 8 is not built, a Cockburn councillor is warning.
One of a tiny handful on the council to support the highway extension through Bibra and North Lakes, Cr Steve Portelli says the evidence is irrefutable, and outlined in a council report.
Road widenings will result in hundreds more trees being felled than will be lost with Roe 8, he says.
Without Roe 8, two-lane Bibra Drive is projected to rise from 12,000 vehicles a day to 16,800 by 2020 and 20,100 by 2031, requiring four lanes.
“With Roe 8 built the road can remain as is and the trees that are adjacent will not need to be bulldozed,” Cr Portelli says.
“The actual reserve could be kept in perpetuity as a nature reserve.”
• Cockburn councillor Steve Portelli on Bibra Drive, which he says will have to double in size if Roe 8 isn’t built. Photo
by Matthew Dwyer
A report by council officers forecasts the following will need to happen if Roe 8 isn’t built:
• Bibra Drive — 2 to 4 lanes
• Farrington Road — to 4 lanes by 2020 and 6 lanes by 2031
• North Lake Road north of Beerigan Drive — 4 to 6 lanes
• Russell Road west of Hammond Road — 2 to 4 lanes.
Cr Portelli adds Roe 8 means less pollution and fewer road accidents, with fewer trucks braking and traveling on local roads.
He’s asked council staff to count the number of significant trees in road reserves slated for widening.
“Now, let’s have informed discussion and not have the misleading rantings from the minority groups,” he says.
Rethink the Link member Kim Dravnieks doesn’t accept the choices are Roe 8 or widening local roads: she says the Barnett government should expedite the construction of an outer harbour at Kwinana which, “would divert traffic away from Stock Road, which is on the verge of becoming a bottleneck already”.
“Building a highway through sensitive wetlands and then putting more trucks on the road in suburbs in Melville and Fremantle is not the answer,” she says. “We should be spending money on an outer harbour: I understand that stage one of that could be completed within three or four years.”
by STEPHEN POLLOCK
