BUNBURY OUTER RING ROAD
ROUTE
856. Hon DIANE EVERS to the minister representing the
Minister for Transport:
I refer to the Bunbury Outer Ring
Road project update of September 2018 that states that Main Roads Western Australia
is committed to the existing corridor for the southern section and that
investigation of an alternative route is being undertaken to demonstrate that
there are ''not feasible alternatives with lesser environmental impact''.
(1) Is the
government giving serious consideration to an alternative corridor despite Main
Roads' stated commitment to using
the corridor reserved in the greater Bunbury region scheme that cuts through
Gelorup?
(2) Does the
government own all land required for the entirety of the southern section of
the BORR to be completed and connected if Main Roads uses the corridor through
Gelorup?
(3) If no to (2),
has the state government purchased or is it in the process of purchasing the
land at the intersection of the Gelorup route and the existing highway; and, if
it has been purchased, when was the most recent purchase?
(4) Does the
minister acknowledge that the original proposal to go through Gelorup,
developed over 20 years ago, was for a single lane each way, not the double
lanes currently required?
(5) Was the
Gelorup cut in the existing corridor originally intended as an interim measure
until population expansion required construction of a ring-road further out
from Bunbury?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The
investigation of the alternative southern corridor is part of the environmental
approvals process to determine whether there are any feasible alternatives to
the existing corridor with lesser environmental impact.
(2) No.
(3) Assuming the
honourable member is referring to Bussell Highway, the state government has
purchased this land. The most recent purchase was in April 2002.
(4)–(5) No.