DENNY AVENUE LEVEL
CROSSING
45. Mr H.T. JONES to the Minister for Transport:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's record investment in job-creating transport infrastructure
across WA, including Metronet. Can the minister update the house on the work
underway to remove the Denny Avenue level crossing and outline to the house
what this project will mean for those in my community of Darling Range?
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
I thank the member for Darling
Range for the question and I congratulate him on his election to this place.
As members know, we gave a commitment
to remove the Denny Avenue level crossing, and it is done, members. This is the
first achievement of the member for Darling Range! It shows members what a difference
it makes when we have a positive, genuine, hardworking member for Darling
Range. We had more than 200 workers out there delivering on this project. They
worked very hard to get the work done, particularly during the shutdown of the
Armadale line. They worked 24/7 over the Easter long weekend. It was very hard
work. I thank the contractors and all the workers involved. People can now
drive through the new Davis Road underpass and completely avoid the rail line.
We were out there visiting the site with the Premier, the members for Darling
Range and Armadale and the federal Minister for Urban Infrastructure, Mr Paul
Fletcher. At 10.00 pm on Easter Thursday, I was joined again by the members for
Darling Range and Armadale as we unbolted the level crossing—the boom
gates. We tore them apart. They are parked there as urban art for the future so
that people can go past them and see what this Labor government did.
This project has had a very long
history. The RAC, in two of its surveys, highlighted that Denny Avenue was the
riskiest road across the network. It is just 250 metres long, but it was the
riskiest road. Many people have been advocating
for the removal of the crossing. I want to thank Hon Tony Buti, the member for
Armadale, for his work; the federal member for Burt, Matt Keogh; and, of
course, the late Don Randall, too, because he was very passionate about this
project. I remember the late Don Randall and Tony Buti trying to work together
to get the then state government interested in the project, but that state
government was not interested and said that the Denny Avenue project was not a priority.
Members might be surprised about how we continue to get funding from the commonwealth. We get funding from the commonwealth
because we deliver projects. We work together and deliver projects. The Denny Avenue project is just the
first of many level crossing removals. We have three in Victoria Park,
two in Cannington and we have also added more projects throughout Armadale.
This government is concentrating on getting things done, delivering projects
and not being obsessed by the mythical Perth Freight Link project, but on
actual projects on the ground that are delivering benefits to Western Australians.