TRANSPORT Minister Dean Nalder was in Mandurah on Friday afternoon to announce Western Australian construction company Georgiou Group would start work to replace Mandurah’s 62-year-old traffic bridge as early as March.
The $51.8 million project would address safety and congestion issues by providing two lanes of traffic in both directions and would be scheduled for completion at the end of 2017.
Mr Nalder said the the new Mandurah traffic bridge would incorporate design elements of the old bridge.
"It is a beautiful design, it's more modern and contemporary, but unfortunately the old bridge has reached its use-by date, and although I'm sad to see it go, we've had to reduce the load limits on the bridge down to 17 tonne and it's no longer practical," he said.
"We are thinking about what the bridge brought for the people of Mandurah particularly the family events underneath and around the bridge itself, and making sure those things are being taken into consideration for the construction of the new bridge."
Mr Nalder said improving traffic capacity with two traffic lanes in each direction and safety for pedestrians and cyclists with separate, wider facilities over the bridge were key features of the project.
"It will also continue to allow families to fish underneath the bridge; there will be platforms both sides allowing the local community to come down and continue to fish as they have done for decades under the Mandurah bridge," he said.
Although there would be economic benefits to the project with about 200 jobs created over the duration of the construction of the bridge, Mr Nalder acknowledged that there would be disruption with a period of about a month when the bridge would be closed altogether.
The old bridge would otherwise be open during the construction of the new bridge.
Mayor Marina Vergone said she was very excited about the new bridge, which would include artwork and interpretation from members of the local Aboriginal community.
"This is one of the biggest infrastructure projects we've had and it will look after the growing needs of the rapidly growing community in Mandurah," she said.
"With our growing community, four lanes, we're so going to need this, it's going to be fantastic for us.
"The resident boat owners of Mandurah and even the people visiting from Perth will be very happy to know that all the canal bridges will now be the same height, so people with luxury boats will now be able to come directly through underneath this bridge which will save them having to travel all the way through the canals to get out into the estuary."
Georgiou executive general manager John Galvin said the company had been working closely with the community and the City of Mandurah.
"We've been speaking to the City of Mandurah for the last two years, so when it came out for tender we had a really good idea what was important to the community and what was important to the City," he said.
Main Roads provided $40 million for the project, Royalties for Regions provided $8.8 million and the City of Mandurah $3 million.
