Doorstop - Fremantle, Western Australia

JOSH WILSON: Good afternoon. [Indistinct]. Welcome to Walyalup. It's great to be here today at the Freo Traffic Bridge with colleagues, particularly Catherine King, the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, also, Simone McGurk, my fellow Member for Fremantle, the Minister for Training, Workforce Development and Water and other things, and Lisa O'Malley, the Member for Bicton.

This is an important milestone in a massively significant project, the biggest infrastructure project that I've seen in my lifetime. It is a generational project that will make a big change for this community. We are replacing a beautiful bridge that has done great service for this community, built in 1938. We are ready for a change. And we're now getting a fantastic new bridge that has been developed and designed with a lot of typically robust Fremantle community input. It will be a span for crossing the Swan River, the Derbarl Yerrigan, for decades and decades to come; a safe and smooth passage for vehicles with much better crossing potential access and amenity for pedestrians and for cyclists. I'm really glad to have advocated for this bridge for a considerable period of time whilst being the federal member and before that. I'm glad that the Albanese Government is partnering with the Labor Government in developing this massive project, obviously providing half of the funding.

To say more about the project, I'll hand over now to Catherine King.

CATHERINE KING: Thanks. Catherine King, the Federal Minister for Infrastructure. And it's terrific to be here with Josh, with Simone and Lisa, but also the workforce that you're starting to see build up here at this Freo traffic crossing. I just also want to acknowledge Rita Saffioti, my counterpart here in WA. It is so great to be working with Rita on transport projects right across this great state. And I know this is a project that's dear to her heart as well. It's a $430 million project investment on a 50-50 basis. This project really is transformational. We know this 1930s structure has served this community so well for such a long period of time, but now, it's really reached its end of life. And being able to have a new bridge constructed, ensuring that we're keeping the rail crossing but ensuring that bridge from a safety point of view, but also we're keeping that connection through to this community. We're delighted to be part of this project. I know you're going to see a lot of activity over a period of time. It's taken a while for us to make sure that we've got the designs right, that all of the money is fully costed in this project, being able to keep the rainbow container. It was a really important part of community access and making sure that the community was listened to as part of this. But you can now well and truly see the construction is underway. We've got the first of the cranes up, about to see another three come on site as well.

This is the only bridge of this particular type in the whole country. So, again, WA is doing something that is very unique. So, you'll see normally, you either see a suspension bridge or a pylon bridge but this is both. It's the first in the country. So we'll be looking at it with great interest for other river crossings as well, and want to say very much to the workforce both who are here on site today but will be part of this iconic project, that this is something you can be very, very proud of. And we know you do things pretty well over here in WA and I know this will be another iconic project.

And I might hand over to Simone to say a few words, and then we'll take some questions.

SIMONE MCGURK: On behalf of the State Government, can I say it is great to have the Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Catherine King, here and with my colleagues, Josh Wilson and Lisa O'Malley, to acknowledge the partnership that is a 50-50 funding of the new replacement for the Fremantle Traffic Bridge.

And as many people would know, certainly in Fremantle, we know that it took a bit of time to get the design right. We wanted to try and keep the existing bridge open for as long as possible. That was a key consideration because it is a central crossing coming in and out of Fremantle and for the southern corridor as well. But in the end, we've come up with a design, and I thank the team at Main Roads and their partners for coming up with a design that means that we can keep the existing alignment. So, this new bridge will replace the existing traffic bridge. And so, we're able to tick that box of making sure that the alignment was right, that we kept the existing bridge open for as long as possible. Also, the new bridge will minimise the amount of obstructions through the river itself for navigational reasons. So that was a consideration for Traditional Owners as well as for people on the river using this part of the river, and of course, many people do.

The only feedback I had when I saw the final design was, does this come in purple? You know, because it really is going to be very special for the Fremantle community, and it certainly ticks the aesthetic box, which I know was something that Fremantle people in the broader community know about. When it comes to public infrastructure, everyone's got an opinion about how things look, that aesthetics do matter and I think we’ve been able to tick that box with this design. So thanks again to the Federal Government for acknowledging the significant investment that is being made with the State Government for this replacement of the traffic bridge and for the Fremantle community and all those that use the bridge, including myself, but all those that use the bridge day in and day out know that we will be doing everything we can to consult and minimise the impact on commuters, on pedestrians and cyclists who all use this bridge, and we’re expecting that closure to occur in the fourth quarter of 2025 and it will be for 12 months. So there will be an interruption but I know at the end of that we’ll have a beautiful new bridge and who knows, we might be able to light it up purple for the Fremantle community. Thanks very much. 

CATHERINE KING: Sounds good. Happy to take- do you want to take questions [indistinct]…?

SIMONE MCGURK: Any questions for the State Government or for me?

JOURNALIST: Minister, yeah, we’ve heard that over 20,000 commuters use this bridge every day. Has traffic levelling shown what the impact would be on people’s commute [indistinct]?

SIMONE MCGURK: Some of these questions about the exact impact on traffic are best probably given to Main Roads, but it will be significant and that was actually why this design took a while to come up with because the original design first of all was east of the current bridge site, this side where we are now, and the to the west because actually we wanted to keep this bridge up as long as possible because the impact on commuters, the Fremantle community, Fremantle business, but all those that use this bridge is significant. So you can imagine taking this many cars that use this bridge everyday onto the Stirling Bridge or onto Leach Highway or the freeway and the like is going to be a disruption. So we want to encourage as many people as possible to use trains, to use public transport, to use alternative routes. There will be a lot of consultation and education for people to make sure that they understand when those disruptions will be happening and what the alternatives are for them. Can I also say at the moment because you can see behind me that there’s the first of four cranes that have already gone up, there are actually now interruptions already for pedestrians and cyclists because they will be driving the first pylons into the river, so they will need to maximise safety, obviously, and so that’s actually starting to happen. So there’s communications going out, and I urge people to sign on to their updates from Main Roads so that they can keep as informed as possible.

JOURNALIST: Minister, how confident are you that this project remains on time and on budget, especially to minimise those impacts?

SIMONE MCGURK: A lot of work is being done to keep the constraints particularly in regards to cost and so for instance, the first design had a duplicate of the rail bridge as well as a new traffic bridge, but considering we have committed to the outer harbour with Westport, we have constrained this project to make sure it is within the budget and $430 million is a significant budget but the design is in there. We have got a partnership alliance to work on this project so we’re confident about the cost and we’re confident about the time frames as well.

JOSH WILSON: Mind throwing any questions to Minister King just before we all get rained on so we can get this done, just very quickly?

CATHERINE KING: [Talks over] Yes, it is. It’s just started. So happy to take any questions. No? Are you going to let me off the hook?

JOURNALIST: I might give you the same question, Minister, as well about- it’s not easy, these big construction projects in WA, we have seen some big cost blowouts and such. Again, your views, how are you feeling in terms of getting this done on time?

CATHERINE KING: Well, we obviously made some extra provision for this project and really that’s been done on the basis of ensuring that we’ve got the best possible information on costs and so $430 million is the budget for this project and we’re confident that it can be completed within that. There’s obviously capacity constraints happening across the country and we’ve worked with state and territory governments as they emerge and we’ll continue to do that, but this project behind us is great news. This has been on the books for a while, we’ve been talking about it for a while, there’s been lots of consultation. The fact that we’re actually here today, celebrating the work that is underway, the construction that’s underway and you’re only just going to see more and more workers on this site, more and more construction occur, alright? And whilst there will be disruption with the bridge having to close, it’s not going to close until almost two thirds of the way through, then it will close, and then there’s no [indistinct]- there’s a fair bit that has to be done from there. It’s a really great day for a project that’s been on the books for ages and again, it’s just really great to work with the Western Australian Government on projects like these, really building a city, making sure we’ve got that connectivity and we’re employing Western Australians on great projects. Thank you.