Traffic chaos is looming in Fremantle after the WA Planning Commission put an end to a four-year battle to save the Fremantle Traffic Bridge and approved its demolition to make way for a $280m replacement.
The WA Planning Commission panel unanimously approved the Swan River Crossings Project on Thursday.
The multi-million dollar plan will develop a new 253m long, 30.5m wide bridge connecting Fremantle and North Fremantle, as well as cycling and pedestrian paths.
There will also be associated landscaping works, public stairs and a foreshore design.
The existing bridge will be closed for at least 12 months during construction.
Greens MP and former Fremantle mayor Brad Pettitt made a final plea to commissioners to save the current structure on Thursday.
He said the traffic bridge, which was built in 1939, was State heritage-listed and the proposal should be moved somewhere else.
“I think everyone’s pretty happy with how the bridge looks and the new design, this is actually a question around location,” he said.
A petition for the bridge to be saved and turned into a highline pedestrian and cycling path park in 2020 has received almost 10,000 signatures to date.
Dr Pettitt also questioned traffic modelling which predicted what he described as one of the most “intense traffic closures we’ve seen”.
According to Main Roads, at least 24,000 vehicles use the bridge every day.
“The credibility around this model needs to be questioned,” Dr Pettitt said.
Dr Pettitt said traffic modelling showed an increase in vehicles spilling into nearby streets which then “magically disappear”.
“Where does this traffic go?” he asked.
In December last year, Wood Research and Development senior engineer Dr Dan Tingley told PerthNow the existing structure could remain — with works — for another 100 years and maintenance would cost less than reconstruction.
“There’s no use by date,” he said.
“What determines when a bridge is out of service is when the majority of the elements are out of service and that’s not the case in this bridge.”
While the bridge is owned by the State Government, the project will be carried out by an alliance of Government and private entities, including Main Roads WA, Arup and Laing O’Rourke, with input from the Public Transport Authority.
Preliminary plans to replace the bridge date back to at least 2019, when the Federal and State Governments announced funding for its development.
Main Roads WA representative Ashley Vincent said the current bridge was an ageing asset that had “well exceeded” its life.
“This project represents a number of years of planning and development effort around what is a critical infrastructure,” he said.
“(There is a) technical complexity associated with maintaining an ageing wooden structure.”
Mr Vincent said Main Roads had not yet made its “detailed” modelling and decision making on how best to manage traffic impacts.
The road authority has previously described the proposal as one of the most “complex and challenging projects” it has ever undertaken.
“Main Roads is an authority that deals with this regularly and routinely (and) is working out the best way to deals with these concerns,” he said.
“We’ve got a window of time between now and the bridge closure … to determine the best intersection treatments.”
A bid from City of Fremantle representatives for an amendment which asked for a pedestrian access path to meet the site’s easternmost boundary, which they said was strategically important for the city, was rejected.
Planning documents said the Fremantle Port Authority supported the need to replace the bridge but that until a final investment decision was made on the Westport program — which intends to move the Fremantle container trade to Kwinana — the inner harbour “must continue” to be able to perform its role.