Great Eastern Highway Bypass is a limited-access dual carriageway linking
Great Eastern Highway
Great Eastern Highway is a road that links the Western Australian capital of Perth with the city of Kalgoorlie. A key route for road vehicles accessing the eastern Wheatbelt and the Goldfields, it is the western portion of the main road link ...
and
Roe Highway
Roe Highway is a limited-access highway and partial freeway in Perth, Western Australia, linking Kewdale with the city's north-eastern and south-western suburbs. The northern terminus is at Reid Highway and Great Northern Highway in Middle S ...
in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, Western Australia. Together with a section of
Roe Highway
Roe Highway is a limited-access highway and partial freeway in Perth, Western Australia, linking Kewdale with the city's north-eastern and south-western suburbs. The northern terminus is at Reid Highway and Great Northern Highway in Middle S ...
, it bypasses the historical
Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
and
Midland
Midland may refer to:
Places Australia
* Midland, Western Australia
Canada
* Midland, Albert County, New Brunswick
* Midland, Kings County, New Brunswick
* Midland, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Midland, Ontario
India
* Midland Ward, Kohima, Nagal ...
localities, through which the original, urban and slower
Great Eastern Highway
Great Eastern Highway is a road that links the Western Australian capital of Perth with the city of Kalgoorlie. A key route for road vehicles accessing the eastern Wheatbelt and the Goldfields, it is the western portion of the main road link ...
passes.
Route description
Great Eastern Highway Bypass begins at a traffic light controlled T Junction with
Great Eastern Highway
Great Eastern Highway is a road that links the Western Australian capital of Perth with the city of Kalgoorlie. A key route for road vehicles accessing the eastern Wheatbelt and the Goldfields, it is the western portion of the main road link ...
in . Through traffic flows between Great Eastern Highway southwest of the intersection and the bypass to the east; access to the north-eastern section of Great Eastern Highway requires turning off the main route. The bypass proceeds around the northern edge of
Perth Airport
Perth Airport is an international, domestic and general aviation airport serving Perth, the capital city of Western Australia.
It is the fourth busiest airport in Australia measured by passenger movements and falls within the boundaries of ...
for
before encountering
Kalamunda Road
Kalamunda Road is a minor arterial road linking the historic suburb of South Guildford with the Darling Scarp suburb of Kalamunda, in Perth, Western Australia.
It serves as a major access road for Perth Airport, and provides the foothills su ...
at a traffic light controlled intersection. Great Eastern Highway Bypass continues east, past residential development to the north, and mostly undeveloped industrial land to the south, before crossing into the industrial suburb of . After
there is a traffic light controlled T Junction with
Abernethy Road
Abernethy Road is a long minor arterial road linking Belmont with the Great Eastern Highway Bypass in Hazelmere, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.
It runs along the eastern boundary of the Perth Airport area.
It serves as an alternativ ...
, which travels in a south-westerly direction, parallel to the airport's eastern edge, connecting to the industrial areas of and . A further
takes the bypass to Stirling Crescent, a local road providing access to Hazelmere and High Wycombe, and the road ends at
Roe Highway
Roe Highway is a limited-access highway and partial freeway in Perth, Western Australia, linking Kewdale with the city's north-eastern and south-western suburbs. The northern terminus is at Reid Highway and Great Northern Highway in Middle S ...
,
to the east. Both intersections are traffic light controlled. Northbound, Roe Highway leads back to Great Eastern Highway in , east of . Southbound, the highway heads towards .
History
Plans for a major highway along a similar alignment date back to
Gordon Stephenson
Gordon Stephenson (6 June 1908 – 30 March 1997) was a British-born town planner and architect. He is best known for his role in shaping the modern growth and development of Perth, Western Australia.
Biography
Gordon Stephenson was born in 1 ...
and
Alistair Hepburn
John Alistair Hepburn (8 March 1915 – 7 September 2004) was a town planner, noted for his contributions to the design and development of the urban regions within greater Perth in Western Australia, and Melbourne, Victoria.
Early life
Hepb ...
's 1955 "Plan for the Metropolitan Region", which was the precursor of Perth's
Metropolitan Region Scheme
The Metropolitan Region Scheme (MRS) provides the legal basis for land use planning within the Perth metropolitan region. It classifies land into broad zones and reservations and is administered by the Western Australian Planning Commission. I ...
.
The first gazetted edition of the scheme shows it as a controlled access highway, extending west beyond Great Eastern Highway. The route crossed the Swan River and met a proposed north–south highway (now constructed and named
Tonkin Highway
Tonkin Highway is an north–south highway and partial freeway in Perth, Western Australia, linking Perth Airport and Kewdale with the city's north-eastern and south-eastern suburbs. As of April 2020, the northern terminus is at the intercha ...
), and followed the river to
Perth's CBD, cutting across the
Maylands and
Burswood peninsulas.
Such a route was still planned for in the 1970s and 1980s.
The eastern section, corresponding to the current Great Eastern Highway Bypass, was constructed in the late 1980s, and was known as the Redcliffe–Bushmead Highway during construction.
Great Eastern Highway Bypass was opened on 14 May 1988,
after 21 months of construction, and at a cost of
$10 million.
The western continuation was not developed, and the route was not included in subsequent planning documents in the 1990s.
Intersections
The entire highway is in the
City of Swan
The City of Swan is a local government area of Western Australia. It is in the eastern metropolitan region of Perth and includes the Swan Valley and 42 suburbs. It is centred approximately 20 km north-east of the Perth central business d ...
local government area, part of the
Perth Metropolitan Region
The Perth metropolitan region or the Perth metropolitan area is the administrative area and geographical extent of the Western Australian capital city of Perth and its conurbation.
It generally includes the coastal strip from Two Rocks in th ...
.
See also
References
Further reading
*
External links
Main Roads WA
{{WA road routes
, route=National Highway 94
, shield={{AUshield, N, 94
, roads={{WA road routes/R, 94
Highways and freeways in Perth, Western Australia
Hazelmere, Western Australia
Bypasses in Australia