source: community news
Jon Bassett | August 25, 2015, 12:00 AM 

Cuttings considered

SWANBOURNE residents next to a highway cutting carrying trucks say southern suburbs’ residents facing Perth Freight Link (PFL) cuttings and flyovers should insist on suitable designs.

“Just don’t let them bull-ride over you and have a say on the final product,” Servetus Street resident Sylvia Peterson said.

The State Government estimates cuttings and flyovers to eliminate stop lights will shorten Fremantle Port container truck trips by nine minutes on the mooted $2.5 billion toll route.

Most Swanbourne residents who spoke to the Western Suburbs Weekly said they now liked the 1.5km West Coast Highway cutting that cost $29.7 million in 1999, including sound-deadening bricks and 2.8m boundary walls that were installed after they lobbied Cottesloe MLA Colin Barnett, who is not expected to attend a Cottesloe PFL forum next Tuesday.

“But we’re up high and look over the cutting and it’s not that bad, but if you were further down the hill or right close to it, it would be awful,” Servetus Street resident Patrick Gillespie said.

Cottesloe residents fought against the cutting’s dual carriageway going south into their suburb through Curtin Avenue, where it now bottlenecks.

The Government has allocated $40 million to move the avenue 3.5km further south to near the port, potentially leaving Cottesloe between upgraded sections of a long-mooted coastal highway that critics fear could be built for trucks avoiding the PFL’s toll.

PFL opponent and Cottesloe councillor Sally Pyvis said while the “costly” Swanbourne cutting had improved some amenity, Curtin Avenue’s upgrade could be “cheap and cheerless” with tilt-up concrete sound barriers.

The route is used by 1121 trucks daily and could increase to 3363 2030.

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