AFTER several months of deliberation, the Mitchell Freeway Extension Community Working Group has come up with a list of options to ease local traffic chaos.
Chairman Albert Jacob said the group would recommend its preferred option and a staging plan to Transport Minister Troy Buswell by Christmas.
The Ocean Reef MLA said the group’s strength was the diverse views provided by members from a wide cross-section of the community.
Mr Jacob said members had looked at many scenarios including realigning the Mitchell Freeway extension in some places.
“(However) for various reasons we have gone back to the original alignment of the freeway,” he said.
“A big part of it is that the freeway extension will not get anybody into the CBD quicker.
“Freeway widening will get them home quicker. My view is that we have a fantastic transport infrastructure but everybody is trying to go in the same direction at once.”
Mr Jacob said members from the far northern suburbs were adamant they did not want the extension to bring the same problems to their suburbs as Kinross.
Peak-hour traffic through Kinross has increased markedly since the freeway’s extension from Hodges Drive to Burns Beach Road in 2008.
“We are working on east-west links and how we would stage these as the freeway goes north,” he said.
Mr Jacob said the group had also discussed the need to open up local employment opportunities, ideally 60 per cent local workers, in the cities of Wanneroo and Joondalup.
Also discussed was the need to improve local intersections such as Hester-Marmion avenues, Hester Avenue-Wanneroo Road and Joondalup Drive-Wanneroo Road.
Mr Jacob said Main Roads had recently put new road markings on Burns Beach Road for motorists heading onto the freeway or continuing straight ahead.
The working group met yesterday and has one more scheduled meeting in October before finalising its recommendation.