Rita Saffioti, Varun Ghosh, Rebecca Stephens and community members officially open Albany Ring Road to traffic

The long-awaited Albany Ring Road officially opened on Saturday with politicians, students, and construction workers all lining up to cut the ribbon. Minister for Transport Rita Saffioti, Senator for WA Varun Ghosh, and Member for Albany Rebecca Stephens joined Main Roads representatives, council members and Albany school students to open the 11km road, which will now be known as Menang Drive. Consisting of three flyover bridges and 11km of road, the $215 million project is the Great Southern’s biggest road infrastructure project to date. Plans for a heavy haulage route that would bypass the city’s denser urban areas started in the 1990s, with the first section completed in 2007. The final two stages of the project, which broke ground in 2020, had been due for completion in mid-2023. Ms Saffioti said the new road would divert about 600 trucks from the city’s smaller roads each day, improving efficiency and safety. “This is a once-in-a-generation project for the Great Southern region, providing a free-flowing freight connection around the city and taking heavy vehicles off existing routes,” she said. “It will be a game-changer in supporting the freight industry, benefiting locals moving east-to-west and helping growth for Albany as a beautiful tourism destination.” “It is something I know you’ll be using for generations and for decades to come.” The road’s $175m budget rose to $225m over the course of the project, which Ms Saffioti said was down to challenges in the construction industry. Plans to build a new $37m flyover at the intersection of Menang Drive and Chester Pass Road were also revealed at the opening, with construction set to begin later this year. The finishing touches to the project will take place over winter in the form of artworks on each of the three bridges by local artists taking inspiration from the region’s landscapes.