Albany faces traffic challenge

The City of Albany is lobbying for a state government commitment to expand a ring road for the diversion of heavy traffic resulting from the new $20 million woodchip terminal.

Albany mayor Alison Goode said while the woodchip facility would provide employment and export income for Australia, the rise in heavy traffic would be to the detriment of the city’s roads.

“We are currently looking at developing a ring road around Albany to alleviate the traffic of trucks to the terminal,” she said.

“The ring road will be developed in three stages, with the state government committed to the first stage.”

However, Ms Goode told WA Business News the state government was yet to commit to the second stage.

“We are currently pressing the government to commit to the second stage of development,” she said.

The ring road development’s first stage will cost $7.5 million and will connect Chester Pass Road with the Albany Highway in an effort to redirect log trucks destined to the port away from built-up areas.

Preliminary site works, including fencing the road reserve and demolishing buildings, are already under way where the road will intersect with Chester Pass Road.

Main Roads Great Southern manager Andrew Duffield said the government hadn’t as yet finalised a commitment to stages two and three of the project due to issues including the government’s acquisition of properties on the planned stage.

“The government is still working on the concept design [for stages two and three],” he said. “It will take 10 months and outlines and revisits the [original] design standards.”

Mr Duffield said an early conceptual estimate of the cost for the Albany ring road was $30 million.

“Work on the first stage is set to begin soon with completion expected in March 2007,” he said.

Mr Duffield  told WA Business News a decision would be made shortly regarding construction contractors for the development.

The Great Southern Development Commission’s Timber Industry Road Evaluation Strategy for the Great Southern, released last year, highlighted the growth of heavy vehicle traffic in Albany as a major issue for the community, due to its impact on traffic congestion, urban environmental amenity (caused by emissions and noise) and safety.

The ring road would act to minimise the environmental impact on Albany by diverting heavy traffic to the port from Hanrahan Road. 

The state government agreed to fund the first stage of the ring road following agreement by Great Southern Plantations Ltd to chip its timber at APEC’s mill at Mirambeena, located 20 kilometres from Albany.

The $20 million woodchip terminal, officially opened last week, was built by Plantation Pulpwood Terminals Pty Ltd, a joint venture company between Timbercorp Ltd and Integrated Tree Cropping Ltd.

At the launch, PPT director John Ipsen said the plant had the capacity to export one million tones of eucalypt woodchips a year, and significantly enhanced Australia’s export capability in eucalypt wood fibre.

Woodchip shipments started from the terminal last July using a tem-porary unloading and screening plant.

Timbercorp, ITC and their joint venture marketing company, Plantation Pulpwood Exports, have woodchip supply agreements with Marubeni and Sojitz, which, in turn, have supply arrangements with Oji and Nippon – Japan’s largest pulp and paper companies.