"Just don't let them bull-ride over you, and have a say on the final product," Swanbourne resident Sylvia Peterson said.
The State Government estimates PFL cuttings and flyovers that eliminate traffic lights will shorten Fremantle Port container truck trips by nine minutes.
Most Swanbourne residents who spoke to Community said they now liked the 1.5km West Coast Highway cutting that cost |$29.7 million in 1999, including sound-deadening bricks and 2.8m private boundary walls that were installed after they lobbied Cottesloe MLA and Premier Colin Barnett.
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READ NOW"But we're up high, and look over the cutting, and it's not that bad, but if you were further down the hill or right close to it, it would be awful," Swanbourne resident Patrick Gillespie said.
Neighbouring Cottesloe residents fought against the cutting's dual carriageway going south on to Curtin Avenue, where there are now bottlenecks.
The Government has now allocated $40 million to realign the southern end of Curtin Avenue, 3.5km farther south, potentially leaving Cottesloe between upgraded sections of a long-mooted coastal highway, which critics fear could be completed if trucks rat-run to the northern suburbs to avoid the PFL's toll.
"People along the PFL from Fremantle may not realise just how deep a cutting can go, how ugly it is, how it cut a suburb in half, and while the material and engineering for the Swanbourne project were top-end, they can't expect that again with a cash-strapped Government," Cottesloe resident and councillor Sally Pyvis said.
Curtin University transport researcher Cole Hendrigan said by using "basic engineering" he estimated the PFL would be 20m-30m deep through Royal Fremantle Golf Course, in East Fre-|mantle, after being 6.5m deep under nearby Marmion Street, East Fremantle.
"Now, this may seem alarmist, but without some sort of public disclosure we are all left to guess how they will engineer their trench in a complex urban and topographical setting," Mr Hendrigan said.
Main Roads WA did not reply to questions before deadline.
n A PFL Forum will be held at Tricolore Community Centre, Wauhope Road, East Fremantle, at 6.30pm on Wednesday, September 2.