The council authorised chief executive Daniel Simms to apply for funds to turn Flynn Drive into a dual carriageway through the National Stronger Regions Fund at its November 11 meeting.
‘It seeks to attract funding in the vicinity of $7.2 million to be matched by the City to enable the further dualling of Flynn Drive,’ Mr Simms said.
‘If successful, we will present a revised 10-year capital works plan.’
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READ NOWMr Simms said the City’s application was strong, and would help achieve targets to create 20,000 jobs by improving access to the industrial area.
He said if the Federal funding application was not successful, the current capital works program would remain in place. In his report, he said there was $4.5 million allocated in 2014-15 for stage two of the Flynn Drive realignment.
Another $2.8 million would be required to complete those approved works, and if the road was made into a dual carriageway, the total would be $14.3 million.
‘The dualling works will increase the NIA’s attraction to investors and open up the area to long-term employment and economic stability,’ he said.
‘If funding approval is confirmed early in the new year, then the stage two Flynn Drive as redefined would be able to be completed in 2015.’
Mr Simms said he and Mayor Tracey Roberts would also be discussing it during their tri-cities advocacy trip to Canberra with the cities of Joondalup and Stirling this month.
Originally due to finish in July, work on the first stage of the alignment stalled two months ago while waiting for Western Power to relocate cables.