In December last year, the State Government promised $75 million to build two traffic bridges over the intersection.
But the recent State budget shows the project will not begin until the 2015-16 financial year, finishing in 2018.
Malaga locksmith Grant Edwards said he was disappointed not only because of safety concerns and traffic congestion issues, but because of travel delays.
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READ NOW‘It’s travel time, trying to get from certain areas, from point A to point B you have to miss this intersection. If you’ve got an emergency and you have to go from Malaga into Morley, I’ve got to bypass this intersection because you just can’t make it in time,’ he said.
Vincent Mayor Alannah MacTiernan said shelving the project has highlighted the State Government’s poor record of delivering on promises.
‘This area is a bit of a Cinderella area for the State Government, this is a classic of just treating an area as if it doesn’t matter.’
Mr Edwards said he found running a small business in WA hard enough without having to deal with Perth’s growing traffic issues.
‘We pay our taxes, we’re entitled to some type of benefit. We don’t get much back being a small business in this state, so you know, being a service industry that actually services Perth, we rely on the roads and if the roads aren’t in a good order then it just delays us.’
Member for West Swan Rita Saffioti said she was appalled by the State Government’s failure to deliver a crucial piece of infrastructure to Perth’s north-eastern corridor.
– The RAC has identified the intersection as being one of the State’s worst, with 238 crashes between 2007 and 2011.
– The intersection has 70,000 vehicles pass through each day.
– The State Government previously promised to finish the construction by the 2014-15 financial year.