Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls has announced that $5 million in Royalties for Regions funding had been allocated to commence the planning phase of the long-awaited PortLink Inland Freight Corridor Development Plan.
Mr Grylls said the PortLink project – which last week received an additional $2 million commitment in Federal Government funding for the planning phase – involved construction of an intermodal terminal and rail realignment in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as well as a sealed road link between Wiluna and Meekatharra.
“Unprecedented growth in the State’s resource-rich areas has created exceptional demand for goods and services. This has led to increases in freight from the Eastern States and an almost total dependence on Perth as a distribution point.”
Mr Grylls said the aim of the PortLink project was to provide an important regional alternative to Perth as the central distribution point for interstate general freight.
“If freight originating in the east can be diverted north along the Goldfields Highway at Kalgoorlie-Boulder, this will be a distance saving of about 600km,” he said.
“The PortLink concept ultimately links Port Hedland, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Esperance and Geraldton, and has the potential to build a more robust and flexible freight network that will deliver economic development and employment opportunities in regional areas.”
A future Phase Two of the PortLink project would examine the feasibility of linking the existing Esperance/Kalgoorlie-Boulder/Wiluna standard gauge rail into the Mid-West and Pilbara network.
Transport Minister Troy Buswell said the PortLink project would build on the Regional Freight Transport Network Plan currently being finalised by the Department of Transport.
