The Cook government’s vision to expand its “Metronet on the Swan” to Burswood and beyond is at risk of being thwarted by the nearly 80-year-old Causeway bridges.
The government has budgeted $107 million to build five electric ferries and two new ferry stops on the Swan River at Applecross and near UWA in what will be the first expansion in the service’s history beyond the Elizabeth Quay to South Perth route.
The view from the existing Transperth ferry route.Credit: Getty
However, there is a vision to expand the ferry service even further along the Swan River, including to the east to Burswood and Belmont, but Transport Rita Saffioti revealed at an estimates hearing on Tuesday the Causeway bridge was too low to allow the current design of ferries through at high tide.
“There are issues with the height of the bridge, they are not insurmountable and would not impact all ferry services, but there are issues with the height of the Causeway,” Saffioti said.
“They are the things we are currently investigating as part of our plan to potentially go to a second stage.
“It is a matter of centimetres. Our ferries could go under the Causeway 95 per cent of the time, but they would not be able to go under 5 per cent or 10 per cent of the time because of the tides.
In response to questioning from Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas, Saffioti revealed some of the spans on the Causeway bridges may need to be “thinned” to allow the ferries to pass under safely.
“As I said, the technology on what can be done to the span of a bridge to facilitate a ferry has changed dramatically. We are working on that. I am particularly excited about that,” she said.
“The member may know that Hay Street Bridge, the bridge in front of Parliament House, used to get knocked by trucks.
“Part of the bridge span has been replaced by a thinner piece of steel and concrete. All those concepts will be looked at.”
Saffioti said engineers who worked on the Boorloo Bridge had been tasked with looking at the Causeway bridge.
“The engineers did a beautiful job. We asked them for advice,” she said.
“If we look at the deck of the Causeway, we can see that it has significant depth, as older bridges did.
“Nowadays, much thinner decks can be made, but the whole bridge does not need to be made thinner, just the span under which the ferry would go.”
The state will spend $25 million on the project this year, and the expanded ferry network is expected to be operational by 2028.
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