A $100million road extension linking Roe Highway and Murdoch Drive has been met with opposition from local residents and The Greens.

Main Roads says the Roe Highway extension will reduce congestion, provide better access to Fiona Stanley Hospital and help the Murdoch Activity Centre reach its economic potential.

But local resident Christine Duckham, a member of Keep Bibra Drive Local, says ambulances will get held up in the increased traffic generated by the new road, and and an ambulance-only lane would have been a better solution.

She says the project started just three weeks after the community consultation session, which was clearly a token gesture.

Ms Duckham is instead backing a proposal by the South West Group—a group of six local councils from the South West Metropolitan Region—which includes a left turn-off from Kwinana Freeway heading north, allowing easier access onto Farrington, without the need for a spur road.

The Greens Alison Wright says the proposed extension will create more problems than it solves.

• Main Roads’ plans for the Murdoch Drive extension.

“There is no strategic road plan on offer from Main Roads, who are using outdated information from last years Roe 8 project, as well as flawed noise modelling mechanics,” she says.

She says the spur road on Farrington will generate increased traffic and road congestion, the proposed extension is a knee-jerk bandaid fix, with no independent transport expert hired to look at the proposition.

“The government underestimates the trauma that the community experienced during last year’s divisive Roe 8 extension project,” Ms Wright says.

“The same contractors that were working on Roe 8 last year, are working on this now. The community’s opinion was asked about this project, but their responses were ignored as work has already begun”.

Jobs

A Main Roads spokesperson said the extension would create an estimated 700 jobs and “has been planned in various forms for more than ten years and is required to reduce congestion, provide better access to Fiona Stanley Hospital and help the Murdoch Activity Centre meet its economic potential as a major employment and research centre”.

The spokesperson added that the extension would reduce congestion on South Street, Kwinana Freeway and a number of local roads.

by WILSON BELL