City of Mandurah are looking to buy a second-hand footbridge and install it in Lakelands to boost pedestrian safety and convenience in the booming northern suburb.
The concrete and steel bridge will be recycled from Main Roads WA’s latest redevelopment of Tonkin Highway – the NorthLink WA project.
City of Mandurah capitalised on the the opportunity, after a “future need” to link pedestrian traffic from Madora Bay to the Lakelands shopping centre and school was identified.
Presented as a late and urgent business item in Tuesday’s meeting, city councillors discussed and voted unanimously to give the project the greenlight.
The maximum price to buy the bridge from Main Roads WA will be $150,000.
While the city had no clear overall project cost estimate, they predicted it would cost less than $4 million to install.
The bridge is 14-years-old and has a estimated “useful life of at least 50 years”.
City of Mandurah have estimated the overall cost to install the footbridge as significantly less expensive than developing a new bridge.
The footbridge would be situated over Mandurah Road, near Banksiadale Gate, and a business case and consultation process will be carried out as part of the project planning.
Councillors voted for chief executive office Mark Newman to commence negotiations and eventually finalise the purchase.
They also passed recommendations to approve unbudgeted expenditure of up to $150,000 for the bridge.
The funding will be pulled from the City of Mandurah’s asset maintenance reserve.
Many councillors spoke out at the Tuesday meeting about the safety and connectivity benefits the project would bring to local residents, commuters and future communities.
Among those that spoke on the matter was north ward councillor Ron Wortley.
Mr Wortley said he was happy to support the motion and highlighted the need as the Lakelands community had a booming population in recent years.
As Mandurah Road, which sits adjacent to the Lakelands Shopping Centre, is a “high-wide load route” the bridge will have to comply with certain standards.
Madora Bay and Lakelands are both “high growth suburbs” within the City of Mandurah. Both suburbs boast a large amount of new developments including a new primary school, new high school, shopping centre and shared sport and recreation spaces.
