PRELIMINARY siteworks have started on the new Fremantle traffic bridge, but the first road closures have East Fremantle council concerned about how another 18 months of traffic disruption is going to affect its streets.

Part of Beach Street was closed this week so Main Roads can install a drilling rig that will bore under the river to about 40 metres below sea level for underground services like power lines.

It’s involved clearing some of the vegetation along the river scarp, upsetting a few locals who believe it’s more than Main Roads let on during the consultation stage.

Ian Ker from the Bridge Integrity Group said Fremantle Bridges Alliance, which is building the new crossing, had told his members clearing would only be at the base of the scarp.

Mr Ker said the latest update from the Alliance, just as works were starting, showed the clearing extending up the sides.

But alliance community relations advisor Lara Goetz said they’d done everything possible to reduce the amount of vegetation to be cleared.

• Main Roads will ban right turns onto Stirling Bridge while Fremantle’s traffic bridge is being replaced.

“The limestone pad needs to be constructed slightly on the scarp to house the drill rig and requires the rig to be on a downward angle to drill into the ground prior to Beach Street, “ Ms Goetz said.

“Not all the vegetation in that section will be removed as some trees will be pruned back to allow space for the drill rigs.

“I understand some community members are concerned about vegetation removal and I would like to reiterate that the team has been extremely diligent in reducing the footprint.”

The road closures were a small taste of what will come when the bridge is fully closed next year, and East Fremantle mayor Jim O’Neil told the Herald they had some concerns.

Main Roads’ traffic management plan has proposed banning right turns from Canning Highway onto the Bridge while the closures are in place, and that has Mr O’Neil wondering where cars will go.

“We don’t want traffic running through the town,” he said.

Noting that the council supported the construction of the new bridge, he said they’d written to Main Roads last month asking to be consulted about traffic management plans, but hadn’t heard anything back.

Mr O’Neil says of particular concern is the traffic that is already creating bottlenecks in the town centre when they turn off Preston Point Road and onto Canning Highway, ready to head north across the bridge.

Rat-running

He says they’ll probably head up Carrington, Marmion and Petra streets, and Council Place, but can’t rule out rat-running through the town centre.

“People will take the easiest way,” he said.

Mr O’Neil said he’s also concerned about heavy traffic movements are going to be managed through the town, particularly as there’s a big schedule of developments in East Freo over the next couple of years, including the old Roofing 2000 site right near where access to Stirling Bridge is going to be curtailed. Also on the books are the redevelopment of the Woodside Hospital, and the Juniper aged care facility.

The town also wants to know how pedestrians and cyclists are going to get across Stirling Highway towards Fremantle, a task he says is already a nightmare for them.

Greens MLC Brad Pettitt has cast his eye across the traffic plans and says it seemed to him that Main Roads’ predictions of traffic volumes were based on the premise some cars would simply disappear.

The only other alternative, he believes, is that they’ll be rat-running through East Freo’s residential streets, while there’s “the world’s longest slip lane to allow more traffic to turn from Stirling Highway onto Marmion Street, which he says will put a lot of cars right in front of two schools.

“How will people go north,” Dr Pettitt asked about the right-turn restrictions on Canning Highway.

Dr Pettitt says he also has grave concerns that the traffic disruption will discourage people from coming to Fremantle for a full year.

“I fear that what they are proposing is going to be catastrophic for Fremantle businesses during that time the bridge is closed,” Dr Pettitt said.

He believes the Cook government is going to have to be transparent about the impact on businesses and start talking about potential compensation.

“This is all because they want to build on the same footprint,” Dr Pettitt said.

He believes they should still be investigating alternatives to avoid the disruption.

“When I was mayor, Main Roads said you could not close the traffic bridge from a traffic management point of view.

“That scenario was off the table, and now it is the scenario.

“It seems that they say whatever is convenient, so I don’t believe this is the only option that could be available for them.”

by STEVE GRANT