An Expression of Interest (EOI) has been released for potential contractors to tender for upgrade works on the $366 million Tonkin Highway project, in Western Australia.
Tonkin Highway is a key transport corridor connecting the city’s industrial centres including international ports, airports, intermodal rail freight terminals and major industrial lands. More than 50,000 vehicles use this section of Tonkin Highway every day, of which 13 per cent are heavy vehicles.
Due to this travel demand, congestion is high and growing.
The Tonkin Highway is projected to have the fifth highest ‘delay cost’ of all major road corridors across Western Australia by 2031.
The planned works, which will get underway south of Roe Highway in late 2025, will see grade-separated interchanges constructed at Hale Road and Welshpool Road, and the highway widened to a six-lane dual carriageway between Roe Highway and north of Kelvin Road, improving safety and reducing delays along the heavily congested route.
The Tonkin Highway, Roe Highway to Kelvin Road project has been separated into two contracts of work. The first contract (Hale Road to Welshpool Road) includes new interchanges at Hale Road (partial connection with north-facing ramps) and Welshpool Road East (full connections), including widening Tonkin Highway. An EOI was released October 11 for these works.
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The second contract (Kelvin Road) includes the Interchange at Kelvin Road (full connections) and the balance of Tonkin Highway widening. Development work is ongoing for this interchange at Kelvin Road to be delivered in the future, following environmental approvals.
Western Australian Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said the project formed part of the Federal Government’s long-term infrastructure and transport planning along Perth’s eastern road corridor.
“This stretch of Tonkin Highway is a notorious bottleneck, particularly the intersection with Welshpool Road which regularly rates as one of the worst for congestion,” she said.
“This important upgrade project will improve safety and the movement of freight and people by creating free-flowing traffic conditions.”
The $366 million project is jointly funded by the Federal ($293 million) and Western Australian ($73 million) governments.
A Design and Construct Contract is expected to be awarded in mid-2025, with construction to start in late 2025.
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