DELAYS to the stalled Mundijong Road extension project appear to be resolved with the State Government set to make a formal announcement within days on a preferred realignment option for the road extension.
Rockingham City Council is now aiming to call for tenders for the project by March next year.
The $9.7 million project to extend Mundijong Road between the Kwinana Freeway and Mandurah Road in
Baldivis has been delayed since mid-2009 when it was revealed a new road alignment would have to be found.
BHP Billiton had raised concerns about the proximity of the proposed alignment to the Kwinana Nickel Refinery’s evaporative tailing ponds south of Millar Road in Baldivis.
The company had asked for a greater buffer between the road and the ponds, claiming that odours from the ponds could pose a health and safety risk to drivers on the new road.
The delay meant Rockingham council had to request an extension of the $6.7 million it had received in federal funding for the project as the funds would have expired on June 30 this year.
In March this year, the City’s planning department and the West Australian Planning Commission engaged Worley Parsons consulting engineers to investigate realignment options to increase the separation buffer to the evaporative ponds.
Rockingham Mayor Barry Sammels told the Courier that a final report had been presented to the three stakeholders in early August and that the State Government would make a formal announcement on the preferred realignment option early this month.
Cr Sammels said the new timeline for the completion of the project had now been set at June 2012 – also the new timeline for the expiry of the federal funds.
“Detailed design will be undertaken immediately following the State Government’s formal announcement of the preferred realignment option,” he said.
Public tenders are scheduled to be called by the City by March/April 2011 for the road’s construction, with practical completion aimed for June 30, 2012.