With 33,000 vehicles travelling on the existing bridge daily, the $136 million project will widen the freight route via an incremental launch method
The first sod has been turned on the Mandurah Estuary Bridge duplication project as the Western Australian road upgrade seeks to slash congestion in Mandurah and Dawesville.
The project involves building a second two-lane bridge on the south side of the existing road, allowing for additional traffic lanes for the original bridge that allows traffic to access southern Mandurah.
“This project has been long awaited by the local community and I am very pleased that work is now underway on this key election commitment,” WA premier Roger Cook says.
“Duplicating the bridge will significantly reduce congestion that is currently experienced on approach to the bridge and cut travel times for the thousands of commuters who use the bridge each day.”
Since being constructed in the 1980s, the Mandurah Estuary Bridge was designed with future duplication in mind as now more than 33,000 vehicles currently use the existing bridge each day.
Alongside the secondary bridge structure, a four metre wide shared path will also be built to help the local community access recreational activities such as fishing.
Federal transport and infrastructure minister Catherine King says she’s proud that the federal and WA governments have been able to work together “to deliver the transport improvement for Mandurah”.
“This bridge is not just an essential piece of infrastructure, but a vital link between families, businesses and communities, which will soon experience better and more reliable transport connection between northern and southern Mandurah,” King says.
To be built using the incremental launch method, 15 concrete bridge segments will be constructed on site and incrementally launched across the estuary from the south-eastern embankment.
Funded jointly by the federal and WA governments, with each government contributing $68 million each, the project is set to be finished late next year.
WA transport minister Rita Saffioti says the duplication of the bridge will “reduce congestion, improve safety and bring about time savings for people who need to commute in and out of Mandurah”.
“This bridge experiences high traffic volumes with around 33,000 vehicles per day due to the population growth in the Mandurah and Peel regions, so the duplication will address these issues,” Saffioti says.