Rowley Road and/or Anketell Road will form part of the primary freight route linking the Kewdale freight and logistics hub and Forrestfield intermodal terminal with the proposed Kwinana Intermodal Freight Terminal and Fremantle Outer Harbour.

Rowley Road and Anketell Road east of the Kwinana Freeway are currently designated as local roads and are mostly of a rural standard consistent with the current zoning of the adjacent land. These roads would require upgrading to be capable of undertaking their freight function, which would include the transport of High Wide Loads (HWL) and dangerous goods.

The Kwinana Intermodal Freight Terminal and Fremantle Outer Harbour are planned to be operational by 2025 and it is important that the necessary land reservations and infrastructure corridors are identified, established and protected from changes in zoning and land use that would adversely impact on their primary freight function. The road freight task in Perth is projected to grow from 5.8 billion tonne kilometres currently to 8.0 billion tonne kilometres by 2020. Much of this growth will be on heavy, high productivity vehicles.

Presently, there are no plans by the State Government to undertake investigations for the essential link sections of Anketell and Rowley Roads east of the Kwinana Freeway and connections with Tonkin Highway. The land adjacent to both Rowley Road and Anketell Road is under pressure to accommodate urban development, particularly land in close proximity of the Kwinana Freeway and future rail stations.

Investigations are needed urgently to determine the important role that these primary “east-west” links are required to play to support the development of the Fremantle Outer Harbour, Kwinana Intermodal Freight Terminal and Latitude 32 industrial area.

It is estimated that between $800K and $1M would be required to undertake the required environmental investigations, initial planning and preliminary engineering design for the eastern sections of these roads.