Leach Highway is a east-west arterial highway in the southern suburbs of

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, primarily linking Kewdale and

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 ...

with the city of

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

. It is allocated State Route 7 and is a dual carriageway for its entire length. Leach Highway varies in width between four and six lanes, with speed limits of .

Route description

Leach Highway is one of the state's most important heavy vehicle routes. It links the major industrial areas of Kewdale and

Welshpool Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...

with

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

's major container port at

. Although the Leach Highway's western terminus is at Carrington Street in

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early second ...

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

continues for a further into Fremantle, and connects it to the Stirling Highway.

History

Leach Highway is named for Leach, former Commissioner of

Main Roads Western Australia Main Roads Western Australia (formerly the Main Roads Department) is a statutory authority of the Government of Western Australia that is responsible for implementing the state's policies on road access and main roads. It operates under the ''M ...

. Construction began in 1966, with the first section opened between its present western terminus at Carrington Street, Melville (now Palmyra), and High Road in Canning (now Willetton) in 1972.Leach Highway - A Success Story ''

Australian Transport This tabulation is for periodicals which do not have their own articles. Magazines ''Australian Railway'' * * Published Trade News Corporation * Feb-Mar 1988 is Vol. 2 No. 1. * Last issue about #23 in approximately Aug 1992. * Size = ~A4 ''A ...

'' September 1978 page 30 It was soon extended eastward from High Road through to Manning Road, utilising the old timber

Riverton Bridge Riverton Bridge is a two-lane road traffic bridge spanning the Canning River at Riverton, in Perth, Western Australia. It was originally built in 1911 and known as the Watts Road Bridge, being renamed to Riverton Bridge in 1916. By the 1930s ...

over the

Canning River The Canning River (Djarlgarra in Nyungar) is a major tributary of the Swan River in the South West Land Division of Western Australia. It is home to much wildlife including dolphins, pelicans, swans and many other bird species. Source a ...

via Barbican Street East and what is now Fern Road and Grayson Court. In 1976 it was further extended from Manning Road to

Orrong Road Orrong Road is a major arterial road servicing the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia as well as the south-eastern continuation of the Graham Farmer Freeway. It is a dual carriageway for its entire length, with multiple sets of traffic ...

, including bridges over

Albany Highway Albany Highway links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its oldest settlement, Albany, on the state's south coast. The highway travels through the southern Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions, and is designated State Route ...

in Bentley and the

Armadale railway line The Armadale line is a suburban rail service in Western Australia that runs from Perth to Armadale on the South Western Railway. This service is planned to extend to the suburb of Byford over an new railway line constructed as part of the By ...

in Welshpool. Then in 1978 the 4-lane concrete Shelley Bridge over Canning River opened, with Riverton Bridge retained for local traffic. In the early 1980s the highway was extended further eastward, first to Hardey Road and, soon thereafter, to the new Beechboro-Gosnells Highway (now called Tonkin Highway) which remains as the highway's present eastern terminus. Also around that time a number of intersections were built to coincide with new roads being built around Leach Highway. A

parclo interchange A partial cloverleaf interchange or parclo is a modification of a cloverleaf interchange. The design has been well received, and has since become one of the most popular freeway-to-arterial interchange designs in North America. It has also be ...

was constructed at the newly extended

Kwinana Freeway The Kwinana Freeway is a freeway in and beyond the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking central Perth with Mandurah to the south. It is the central section of State Route 2, which continues north as Mitchell Freeway to Cl ...

, and an intersection was constructed for the new Centenary Avenue in Wilson to improve access to the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), now called Curtin University. New at-grade intersections were built at Murdoch Drive and Winthrop Drive to service the new suburbs of

Bateman Bateman may refer to: Places *Bateman, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth, Australia **Electoral district of Bateman, an electorate of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, centred on the suburb *Batemans Bay, a town and bay in New South W ...

and Winthrop. Although not strictly Leach Highway, in 1985 Stirling Highway was extended southwards from its then terminus at

Canning Highway Canning Highway is an arterial road in Perth, Western Australia, linking the inner Perth suburb of Victoria Park in the north-east, to the port city of Fremantle in the south-west. The road is mostly a four-lane divided carriageway, with a ge ...

to a new terminus at High Street (an extension of Leach Highway). This marked the final piece of an improved freight link between the Port of Fremantle and

's major industrial areas around Kewdale. Apart from minor modifications, the Leach Highway remained largely unchanged until 2005/2006 when work on projects at

and Orrong Road commenced.

Orrong Road interchange

In November 2005, the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

announced plans for the construction of a $21 million diamond interchange at the intersection of Leach Highway and

. Orrong Road, which is a continuation of

Graham Farmer Freeway Graham Farmer Freeway is a inner-city freeway in Perth, Western Australia. It links Rivervale and Burswood with West Perth and Leederville, providing an east-west bypass of Perth's central business district. The freeway, in conjunction w ...

has experienced an increase in traffic by approximately 40% since the freeway was completed in 2000. The new bridge brought Leach Highway over Orrong Road, allowing, at the time, free-flowing traffic from Welshpool Road to Abernethy Road. The intersection was formerly Perth's worst blackspot. Approximately 70,000 vehicles, including substantial numbers of trucks, use the intersection daily. Funding for the project was made available through the sale of land reserved for the

Fremantle Eastern Bypass The Fremantle Eastern Bypass was a proposed bypass of Fremantle, Western Australia, which would have linked Stirling Highway with Roe Highway. A highway link from Roe Highway to Fremantle Port was proposed in the Metropolitan Region Scheme since ...

. The interchange was completed in July 2007.

Bull Creek railway station

Bull Creek railway station Bull Creek railway station is a railway station on the Transperth network. It is located on the Mandurah line, 11.7 kilometres from Perth station inside the median strip of the Kwinana Freeway serving the suburb of Bull Creek. History Th ...

was built at the interchange of Leach Highway and

for the new Perth-Mandurah railway. A new bridge was built immediately south of the present highway bridge to cater for bus access to the railway station. Alterations to the

on and off ramps to Leach Highway have also been undertaken, entailing modifications to the layout of the

Gateway WA

As part of the Gateway WA project, which commenced in 2013 and was completed in March 2016, Leach Highway was upgraded to a controlled access four lane expressway from

into

Terminals 1 and 2, through Airport Drive. This involved Perth's first full freeway to freeway interchange with Tonkin Highway and a compact diamond interchange with Abernethy Road. Airport Drive will also provide a major link to the planned consolidated Perth Airport complex.

Future upgrades

Welshpool Road interchange

In February 2018, then Federal Opposition transport and infrastructure spokesman

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...

pledged to put $46.5 million toward upgrading the Leach Highway and Welshpool Road to a grade-separated interchange if

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

won the upcoming Federal election. The intersection is considered to be one of Perth's most congested, with a high number of crashes occurring. The cost of the upgrade was at the time estimated to cost $93 million

Major interchanges and exits

As Leach Highway is not limited access, a large number of the roads that Leach Highway are connected to are not controlled. Major intersections are at-grade and controlled. Exceptions are the

and

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 are grade separated in favour of Leach Highway. The first two are diamond interchanges, while the latter is a single-point urban interchange (SPUI). Although also grade-separated, the Centenary Avenue interchange is controlled by traffic lights on the westbound side of the highway.

References

External links

Main Roads Western Australia
{{WA road routes , route=State Route 7 , shield={{AUshield, S, 7 , roads={{WA road routes/R, 7 , route2=National Route 1 , shield2={{AUshield, R, 1 , roads2={{WA road routes/R, R1 Highways and freeways in Perth, Western Australia Highway 1 (Australia)