Perth a city for cars
BY ANTHONY BENBOW
PERTH — A few years ago I saw a Perth street directory from the early 1960s. A snapshot of a city vastly different from the one of today, it was interesting to see not only the roads of the time, but also the ones proposed for the future. A heavy dashed line was visible just to the north of the CBD, cutting through the heart of Northbridge.
The line was labelled "proposed city northern bypass" and would have cut a swathe through what later became a vibrant inner-city restaurant, night life and residential area.
Fortunately, governments and urban planners are more environmentally and socially conscious now than they were then. Or so we should expect.
So when Richard Court's state government announced in 1995 that the "city northern bypass" was now to be built, people were outraged. A 30-year-old road plan dressed up as an urban transport strategy for the 21st century?
What about considering alternative (and lower cost) transport options like light rail? What about improving existing public transport? What about the damaging social and environmental costs of more car use: greenhouse gases, smog, road trauma and traffic jams? What of the impact on the Northbridge area itself?
And, finally, just how much would this madness cost WA taxpayers?
Plenty, as it turned out. As the questions mounted, as the cries of protest grew louder, the Court government responded — by being evasive, ignoring protests and grimly pushing ahead with its plan.
Part of the roadway was to be an underground tunnel to "minimise the impact on Northbridge". The tunnel was to be constructed using the "low-impact" method of bulldozing everything in its path, digging a huge trench and then putting a concrete lid on the top.
An experienced engineer pointed out that such a construction would disrupt the flow of ground water from the higher ground above the tunnel to the Swan River and that this might destabilise the foundations of some CBD buildings.
Community groups like Cities For People and TRAC, the Transport Reform Action Coalition, highlighted other problems: the demolition of heritage and significant buildings in Northbridge, the destruction of parkland used as a meeting place by Aboriginal people, the loss of popular youth venues and the complete lack of any consideration for urban transport alternatives.
There were rallies and protests. Even in the driving rain, hundreds turned up to march against "the tunnel", as the project was now known. All were ignored.
The government announced an extra tax on petrol to fund the project and handed the contract to the BCJV consortium (the "C" stands for Clough Engineering, the Clough family have a long association with the WA Liberal Party). The tunnel project, it was announced, was to cost around $300 million.
In the end it blew out to nearly $400 million — for six kilometres of road in the central city, while country roads, along with health, education and government services, suffered. All over WA, the "Northbridge Tunnel" was on the nose.
In a desperate move to try to restore some credibility to the project, the government announced the new freeway tunnel would be named after Aboriginal identity and former WA footballer Graham "Polly" Farmer.
The new "Farmer Freeway" was officially opened on April 22 amid a deluge of advertising hype and nonsense. The only beacon of sanity was a "Wrong way — go back" demonstration organised by Cities For People.
Finally, on April 24, the tunnel was opened completely — to its first traffic jam. Main Roads WA explained this was due to "people driving slowly to look at the tunnel". No wonder its opponents call it Mad Roads WA.
The Northbridge freeway disaster is not the end of it. The state government is now duplicating the Narrows Bridge (why, do we need to a spare?) and pushing ahead with several other road projects. Meanwhile, public transport is being privatised, with the buses already outsourced to private operators.
All this in a city which already has a higher percentage of land used for roads than any other city in the world (except Houston), and the same number of cars per head as Los Angeles. Perth also has the beginnings of a serious smog problem and no coherent plan to deal with the social effects of growing urban sprawl — save building even more roads, which will only make things worse.
Instead of moving towards sustainable communities and sustainable transport, Court and Co. are making Perth a city for cars.