Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every day I drove through my electorate of Hasluck, I drive through the Gateway WA Perth airport and freight access project. This impressive infrastructure project will improve roads in the electorates of Swan and Hasluck and provide better airport access for Perth. The Commonwealth funds $676 million of the billion-dollar project and the Western Australian government contributes the remaining $310 million.

The project will improve five main interchanges, widening the Tonkin Highway to six lanes and converting the Leach Highway into an expressway. The project involves over 600 local businesses and employs 1,300 people in construction. Its centrepiece will be a three-level interchange that is 13.9m high, as tall as a netball or basketball court is wide. When I visited the project to mark its halfway point on 29 January this year, I stood under part of the interchange in awe. This huge project is now over 60 per cent complete, and could be finished ahead of schedule next year. It is also $45 million under budget. I fought for the use of that $45 million to upgrade a problem intersection in my electorate.

Thanks to the Gateway WA project, the Berkshire Road and Roe Highway intersection in Forrestfield will soon have an overpass to prevent the accidents that were troubling many of my constituents. I am proud that the Commonwealth can continue to deliver better roads for Western Australians and for the residents of Hasluck.