Hidden truck agenda

IF MAIN Roads WA recognised the environmental importance of Toodyay Road, why would it choose to put a 90m-wide, 11m-deep cut for several kilometres through beautiful Wandoo and Powderbark woodland around the Sandplain and Salt Valley Road intersections for an overtaking lane that could go elsewhere?

This part of Toodyay Road is too steep for heavy trucks, so Main Roads wants to lessen the gradient to enable trucking operators to cut 11 minutes off the journey and save millions of dollars.

From the start, the Toodyay Road upgrade was always sold by Main Roads as being about road safety.

But the more we find out about what is going on, the more it is about helping the trucking industry and the less about safety.

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Bethan Lloyd
Toodyay