WA Government announces bus priority lane for Mounts Bay Road
The next step towards future-proofing Perth’s busiest bus route begins early next year with construction starting on a new bus priority lane on Mounts Bay Road near The University of Western Australia (UWA), the Western Australian Government announced last week.Transport Minister Dean Nalder said the $3 million project would build on the success of the peak-hour Beaufort Street bus priority lanes and Transperth’s most frequent bus service – the 950 bus route, which averages 17,000 passengers a day.
“The new westbound bus-only lane between Hackett Drive and Broadway will boost the reliability of Transperth services and help reduce congestion in the heavily-used corridor between the CBD and UWA,” Mr Nalder said. “The Beaufort Street bus lanes have already cut up to four minutes from journeys between Morley and Perth. The Public Transport Authority expects the new Mounts Bay Road lane will prevent buses being stuck in traffic and future-proof journey times along this major arterial route.” The project will take about six months, and will involve reducing the median strip width between Hackett Drive and Winthrop Avenue to create a new traffic lane. The Mounts Bay Road-Broadway intersection will be modified and the road resurfaced. Two lanes will stay open through most of the work, with the only closures taking place at night. Significant delays are not expected. Bus stands for routes 23, 97, 102, 107 and 950 along the affected section of road may be temporarily relocated or closed. “This will complement the new $1 million peak-period bus-only lane between Walcott and Bulwer streets which is part of a 10-year, $14.2 million initiative between the State Government and the cities of Perth, Vincent and Stirling,” the Minister said. Other bus priority infrastructure will be installed on William Street in the city, at the QEII Medical Centre site and has already been introduced at the intersection of Albany Highway and Nicholson Road.
Source: News Release, Urbanalyst, 23 December, 2014