Source: Westport Beacon
The Government of Western Australia has endorsed a plan to build a new 4.5 million TEU capacity box port at Kwinana and transfer business from Fremantle.
The rational for moving the business of the port to a new location is to cater to Western Australia’s future freight needs. The Westport Taskforce last year found that, even with billions of dollars’ worth of upgrades, the transport network around Fremantle Inner Harbour would reach capacity by the mid 2030s.
According to economic modelling, current capacity at Fremantle is said to be about 2.1 million TEUs but the supporting road and rail networks would limit throughput to about 1.2 million TEUs. That falls far short of the estimated 2068 forecast capacity demand of about 3.8 million TEUs.
The new port will be at the Kwinana Industrial Area, about 20 km south of the existing port at Fremantle, near to the Kwinana Bulk Terminal and the Aloca jetty.
The new port will be supported by an enhanced road and rail network and by new intermodal terminals.
The new port will be connected by a road freight corridor of upgrades to Anketell Road / Thomas Road connecting to the Tonkin Highway. The connecting roads will be upgraded to a four-lane divided freight route with a central median. Direct property access will be removed by providing service roads and grade separation ill be provided at high-volume cross roads. The road network will handle about 70% of the containers from the port.
The state government will now begin begin work on deciding a timetable to move the business of the existing Fremantle Port to Kwinana. The transition will either occur in one step by 2032 or will be phased in over 15 years in which time the existing and new ports will share the freight task.
Approximately $97 million has been allocated by the state government to progress the project. Work will be managed by a new “Westport Office” set up within the Department of Transport.
Work to be carried out will include:
- assessing and mitigating environmental impacts
- protecting land for future port and supply chain connections
- detailed port, road and rail design; and
- developing a business case for consideration by Infrastructure Australia.
Further reading:
Details of the Westport Taskforce final report can be found here.
Westport Beacon – a series of mini reports on the project
