Liberal Zak Kirkup campaigns for new Estuary Bridge to end traffic frustration | POLL

Gridlock along Mandurah and Old Coast roads has been one of the biggest frustrations in town since the bridge opened in 1986, but now Liberal Dawesville candidate Zak Kirkup is campaigning to use money from the part-sale of Western Power to fund a new four-lane (plus two emergency-lane) Estuary Bridge.

Announcing the campaign on Tuesday morning, Mr Kirkup said it was time put the project on the government’s infrastructure spending agenda.

“If I'm elected as the member of parliament for Dawesville, I'm going to fight to get a new Estuary Bridge built,” he said.

“I know it's not going to happen overnight, but it's important to stand up and talk about this issue rather than just continue to complain and expect that through frustration something will happen.

“Someone needs to stand up on behalf of the community and speak up about this issue.”

Mr Kirkup said the design and construction of a new bridge would cost upwards of 80 million, but with the government planning to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure over the coming years, it was important to make sure Mandurah did not miss out.

“With the float of 51 per cent of Western Power on the Australian Stock Exchange, a billion dollars will flow into new transport infrastructure,” he said.

“That means we'll have that plus other funds such as Royalties for Regions which we can access in order to get this bridge built.

“We know that the new traffic bridge has created hundreds of jobs so when you look at a much larger bridge, and a much more important bridge, it's going to have immediate economic impact in creating local jobs, but obviously there would be a benefit in terms of saving time and money for what is now 36,000 cars crossing that bridge every day according to forecasts by Main Roads – and it's going to go up to 44,000 by 2031.”

Local residents Ron Jones and Ross O’Malley said the City was crying out for a fix to congestion around the bridge.

“One thing is for sure and certain and that is the population is going to continue to grow south of this bridge; it's not going to stop,” Mr Jones said.

“I shifted down here 11 years ago and I was driving down to Herron for 10 years before that and the traffic here over the holiday period is chaotic and dangerous.”

Mr O’Malley said traffic jams on the bridge cost businesses money and he worried about the safety of motorists.

“It's got to be costing trades people and businesses a lot of money,” he said.

“People can't afford to be held up for that amount of time and if an ambulance had needed to get through, it just couldn't – people could die as a result of the traffic build up.

“It's been talked about for years and it's about time we stopped talking about it and actually start designing the thing and get costings done up and do it properly.”

Labor’s Dawesville candidate Adam Woodage said he did not support the sale of publicly-owned assets to fund “Liberal Party election commitments”.

“The Liberals have wrecked the State’s finances and now they’re flogging off Western Power to pay for their election promises,” he said.

“What an irresponsible way to manage the budget. 

“The Liberals have been in office for eight years and have failed to address concerns about the bridge. It’s interesting that they have suddenly taken an interest in this issue just three months out from the election.”

Mr Kirkup said he was asking residents who supported rebuilding the bridge to sign a petition.