MUCHEA–ELLENBROOK
NORTHLINK BYPASS
445. Ms
L.L. BAKER to the Minister for Transport:
My question refers to claims by the
member for Vasse about road surfacing on the NorthLink WA project.
(1) Can the
minister tell the house whether the contract that was signed stated that chip
seal would be used to surface the road?
(2) Who signed the contract?
(3) If the road is going to be
resurfaced, how much will that cost the taxpayer?
Ms R. SAFFIOTI
replied:
I thank the member for Maylands for
her question. She is very, very keen to learn about road construction and all
things chip seal.
(1)–(3) As
we know, there have been issues about damage to vehicles along stage 3 of
NorthLink WA. We are addressing that and making sure that we fund the repair
works on those vehicles. However, I want to go through the history of the
project and what we are doing. The third section of NorthLink from Ellenbrook
to Muchea, over 34 kilometres, was opened on 23 April this year. With the chip
seal surface, loose stone flicked up, particularly in the initial weeks, as the
road settled down. I understand that it is very similar to what has happened on roads in the past—Toodyay Road upgrades
and other road grades. In particular, in the initial weeks, there is movement
of that stone. When I heard about the damage that was being done to
windscreens, we immediately acted to ensure that that damage would be covered
by the company involved. As we stated the other day, that work is ongoing and
we are making sure that damage to windscreens is covered. To put it in context, so far, there have been over
400 000 vehicle movements on that road. Initially, there was an impact on one
in 1 000 vehicles and it is now one in 10 000, so it is now a 0.01 per cent
impact on vehicles. As I said, it is a high volume road, which is why we
have seen an impact on this number of vehicles. But this is something that has
happened in the past. We are ensuring that we work with affected road users. We
immediately sought to make sure that road users would not be out of pocket. As
I said, this is something that the Minister for Transport manages with roads.
There
were a couple of points that I wanted to clarify. A comment was made by the
member for Vasse today that chip seal is used for low volume roads and,
typically, on rural roads that do not have a large volume of vehicles. I want
to go through some of the facts about where chip seal is used. I do not know
about everybody else, but when I was living in Roleystone, chip seal was
everywhere along the Brookton Highway. There are other roads with chip seal in
the metropolitan area, including Brookton Highway, Tonkin Highway, Wanneroo
Road, Armadale Road, Albany Highway, Thomas Road, Great Northern Highway
through the Swan Valley and South Western Highway. Chip seal is used on roads
in the metropolitan area; it is not unique to the NorthLink project. I wanted
to clarify that. The other point that was made is that the opposition transport
spokesperson has committed to resealing NorthLink stage 3. That would be done
at a $70 million cost to taxpayers. The question is: if resealing will happen
on that road, and obviously if the opposition believes that chip seal is not
appropriate for any road in the metropolitan area, does that mean that all the
roads through, for example, Darling Range will need to be resealed at a different
level? Resealing of all roads that have chip seal is now a commitment of the
opposition!
On noise mitigation, again, we will be
working to monitor sound and its impact over the coming months. We have brought
that forward. We will work with those who live nearby to try to remove any
noise issues. We are very much on this issue. We are making sure that we
address the cost issue and now also the noise issue. Making false claims about
the use of this type of product throughout WA again shows that the opposition
is not keen on facts. Of course, it was part of the contract that the member
for Nedlands signed back in January 2017!