Kwinana Freeway

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Kwinana Freeway
Kwinana Freeway as seen from Kings Park
Kwinana Freeway as seen from Kings Park
Length 46 km
General direction North-South
From Mitchell Freeway, Perth, Western Australia
via South Perth, Bull Creek, Leeming, Jandakot, Atwell, Success, Hammond Park, Mandogalup, Bertram
To Safety Bay Road, Baldivis, Perth
Established 1970s
Allocation Canning Highway - Leach Highway
(duplex with )
Major Junctions Riverside Drive
Mounts Bays Road
Canning Highway
Manning Road
Leach Highway
South Street
Roe Highway
Armadale Road
Beeliar Drive
Thomas Road
Mundijong Road

for full list see Major Interchanges
See also: Mitchell Freeway

Kwinana Freeway is a major arterial road in Perth, Western Australia, linking Perth with the southern suburbs and the City of Rockingham, a distance of 46 kilometres (29 mi). It has a speed limit of 100 km/h generally but this is lowered while roadworks are in progress. Like all Western Australian freeways, the minimum allowed speed, where safe, is always 20 km/h less than the maximum speed limit. The freeway, like the Mitchell Freeway, has been allocated State Route 2 and is part of National Highway 1 between Canning Highway and Leach Highway.

Kwinana Freeway is a dual carriageway with three or four lanes in each direction north of Leach Highway, increasing to five lanes north of Mill Point Road. South of that point, it generally has two lanes in each direction, with sufficient lateral clearance under bridges for additional future lanes. It also acts as part of the boundary for many of Perth's southern suburbs. The new Mandurah railway line now runs in the freeway median between the city and the suburb of Mandogalup, where it then deviates to the west towards the city of Rockingham and south to Mandurah. While under construction, parts of the freeway had reduced speed limits, lane closures or other restrictions due to roadworks which caused traffic problems.

Contents

[edit] History

The Kwinana Freeway's first beginnings were in 1959, when the Narrows Bridge was opened and a dual carriageway urban road built to Canning Highway. It was upgraded to freeway standard in the 1970s, with the Judd Street bridge being opened in 1976, and the Canning Highway interchange in 1979. A major southern extension was built between 1979 and 1982 which extended the freeway 7 km further south past Leach Highway to South Street. This included construction of the Mount Henry Bridge, which is Western Australia's longest at 660 metres.

The third stage, opened in 1991, extended the freeway another 9 km to Forrest Road (Now Armadale Road/Beeliar Drive). The fourth stage, opened in 1994, brought the freeway even closer to Rockingham, in the process opening up the then undeveloped southern suburbs in the City of Cockburn. This extension was not built to freeway standard (though the new road was still named Kwinana Freeway) because of insufficient funding required to build the 5 necessary interchange bridges. South of Farrington Road, there were traffic lights (complete with "end of freeway" and "start of freeway" signs) at each intersection. With the works completed in 2002, interchanges were built over these intersections and it then became a freeway in both name and standard.

Mount Henry Bridge
Mount Henry Bridge

The fifth and final stage completed in 2001, which included the aforementioned bridges, took the freeway a further 12 km south, finishing south of Rockingham with a terminus at Safety Bay Road.

During the afternoon on 13 May 2005, a water pipe burst near the southbound Mill Point Road freeway onramp in South Perth. This resulted in widespread flooding in the area, submerging the southbound lanes of the freeway, and collapsed the onramp. This caused traffic gridlock throughout the city and much of the metropolitan area, lasting well into the night. On average it took people over 2 hour to travel between the Mill Point Rd exit in South Perth to Canning Hwy in Como along the parallel Labouchere Rd - a road with only one lane in each direction. In order to ease congestion (slightly), the northbound side of Labouchere Rd was opened to southbound traffic and closed to northbound.

The Freeway at Cockburn, Facing South.
The Freeway at Cockburn, Facing South.
A Transperth bus travelling on the Narrows Bridge, heading southbound.
A Transperth bus travelling on the Narrows Bridge, heading southbound.

[edit] Bus Transitway

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The Kwinana Freeway Bus Transitway runs in the Kwinana Freeway median from Esplanade Busport to Leach Highway. Between the Esplanade Busport and Canning Highway, the two-lane busway runs within a continuous concrete barrier; between Canning Highway and Leach Highway, the busway is a single northbound (non-reversible) priority lane. The Transitway incorporates the Canning Bridge Transfer Station, allowing passengers to transfer between Kwinana Freeway and Canning Highway bus services.

The present Transitway was to be the first stage of a two-way busway extending to Murdoch Park 'n' Ride. In 2002 the newly elected state government decided that the new Southern Suburbs Railway would be built in the Kwinana Freeway median between the suburb of Leeming and the city centre, rather than the previously planned cheaper-and-less-disruptive-but-longer 'Jandakot-Thornlie' route. As the new railway requires the median strip, in mid-2006, the bus Transitway will be closed permanently to allow construction of the railway. Once the railway is operational, bus services will only operate on the freeway between Canning Highway and the Esplanade Busport. Although no new bus lanes will be provided, dedicated on-ramps and off-ramps are intended to provide some form of bus priority.

Kwinana Freeway as viewed from Cranford Avenue bridge. Leach Highway bridge and future Bull Creek train station is visible.
Kwinana Freeway as viewed from Cranford Avenue bridge. Leach Highway bridge and future Bull Creek train station is visible.

[edit] Future Works

There are currently no plans to extend the Kwinana Freeway, except to have it continue as the Perth - Bunbury Highway where it currently terminates at Safety Bay Road. Currently 80% of the land for the Highway has been cleared and prepared for construction. The Highway will divert Mandurah cutting travelling time and traffic in Mandurah of what can take up to a 3 hour journey from Perth to Bunbury, especially during school holidays where families take the time to travel to Western Australia's South-west.

At the Manning Road interchange there are plans for a southbound on-ramp, but the project is not currently funded, and made more difficult by two blocks of flats that would require demolition.

The freeway suffers from major congestion during peak periods. On completion of the new southern suburbs railway, congestion may ease, at which time the issue of additional traffic lanes at critical locations may be revisited, as was the case when the Joondalup line was built on the Mitchell Freeway median in 1992.[citation needed]

[edit] Interchanges & Exits

Kwinana Freeway from Leeming, near the Farrington Road interchange. Perth CBD is visible in the distance.
Kwinana Freeway from Leeming, near the Farrington Road interchange. Perth CBD is visible in the distance.

The Kwinana Freeway begins at the end of the Mitchell Freeway, which is generally noted as the northern end of the Narrows Bridge. It ends at Safety Bay Road in Baldivis.

Signed as :

Signed as :

Signed as :

The freeway currently continues on as Safety Bay Road in Baldivis after it finishes.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
v • d • e
Road infrastructure in Perth
Freeways
Highways
Bridges
Route 2: Joondalup to Baldivis
via Perth
Mitchell Freeway Dual carriageway - 4 to 10 lanes
Kwinana Freeway Dual carriageway - 4 to 10 lanes