Orrong Road bridge

I recently noticed this new bridge. It's part of the Roe Highway upgrade and connects the residential areas of East Cannington and Beckenham to the heavy industrial area of Welshpool.

It's impressive. The width of the main path through this area has been made to the new PSP standard of 4.0 metres. On the bridge section, the width is actually 4.6 metres between the railings. This bridge eliminates the need to make a multiple stage crossing of the busy intersection at ground level.

The span across Orrong Road is about 120 metres long, plus there has been significant earth works on both sides to achieve a gradient suitable for cycling. 

There are three additional side-ramps connecting to the main path. The overall length of the project must be around 300 metres.

For comparison, the photograph below shows the much-lauded Cycle Snake / Cykelslangen bridge in Copenhagen. It's 4.0 metres wide between top rails and 4.6 metres at ground level - very similar. And its length, is 190 metres. Overall, the Perth bridge was a bigger project.

Cykelslangen, Copenhagen

Orrong Road and Roe Highway are part of a road network designed for very large trucks with oversize loads. The heavy industrial area of Welshpool is often the starting point for massive loads travelling to mine-sites in the state's north-west and eastern goldfields. The height of this cycle bridge has been designed to accommodate trucks with oversize loads up to 6.5 metres high traveling underneath. A standard truck has a maximum height of 4.3 metres.

This extra height requirement would have resulted in the whole project becoming larger and more costly. It would have required many more tonnes of earth works and much larger retaining walls. The hills here are not natural. This was originally a flat, swampy area. 

The path is not busy. You can visit here for more than an hour without seeing anyone on foot or on a bike. Why was it built? I'm not complaining, but it's an obvious question, without an obvious answer.  I suppose this would be called building-for-the-future. This is amazingly good infrastructure in an area with a mode share that is probably less than 1%. The Western Australian state government has made a commitment to expand the PSP network within a 15 kilometre radius of Perth. This is part of that process.

The Orrong Road bridge has been done without fanfare. I have not been aware of any media release or special announcement. It's part of the large Roe Highway Upgrade project which has a budget of $41 million. This connects with the even larger $1 billion Gateway WA project. Perhaps when there is so much money flowing for highway construction, building a top-class cycling bridge at same time is made easier.

I've called it a cycling bridge but officially these are shared paths. Curiously, Main Roads WA list this as a "footbridge" even though pedestrians are highly unlikely to use it. The residential area of East Cannington nearby rates as a "car dependant neighbourhood" on Walkscore. Many of the streets don't have footpaths and it is common to see three or more cars parked in the front yards of houses.

Perth is not a cycling utopia. We have some good parts but there are still lots of missing links to the PSP network. There are also missing bridges. The_Causeway across the river between Victoria Park and East Perth is an example. It's much closer to the central city than the Orrong Road bridge and has potential to be one of the main cycle routes into the city for commuters. Currently, pedestrians and people cycling share a bumpy, narrow bi-directional path on the southern side of the two bridges. The two-metre wide path is used by a lot of pedestrians and this will only increase when the nearby high-density Riverside development is complete. There has been talk about parallel cycling bridges for several years.

The Causeway shared path

The Causeway

Update 20 December 2017

The Department of Transport have provided some information on the Orrong Road bridge:

"The rationale behind the bridge was that this location would have been the only at grade crossing on the Roe Highway PSP between Kwinana Freeway and Tonkin Highway.  The new bridge and construction of the missing 1km of PSP have resolved this issue and the route now provides a great safe link into the hills for the more serious rider and recreational opportunities for local residents.  It also ties in nicely with the extensive Gateway project PSP network and the under construction Northlink project.  Ultimately, it all forms part of the high level PSP network that will cater for commuters, recreational cyclists and training cyclists."

Perth Stadium bicycle travel zone

I have written about the transport issues for the proposed Perth Stadium recently, here and here.

Since that time, I have learnt some news from the Perth Stadium people.  The new bridge between East Perth and Burswood will be ten metres wide and cyclists will be permitted to ride across. There are not any other details available at this stage because the bridge has not yet been designed. At ten metres wide, it seems that pedestrians and cyclists could have there own space and conflict could be avoided.

I do wonder about this piece of infrastructure. It will be in quite a prominent position at the eastern end of the city, the part that most visitors see first. There is potential to make this bridge something wonderful. Not only an important link for bicycle riding and walking, but a stimulating and interesting structure that could add to the culture of our city. There is potential to create a bridge that is both functional and artistic.

The movement of people on game days has been the major focus of the Perth Stadium transport plans, but we need to remember that for the rest of the week, any infrastructure built to accommodate those peak times will become part of Perth's transport network. Hopefully, there would be some significant additions to the bicycle network. Unfortunately, apart from the new bridge, the Perth Stadium planners are not showing much interest in bicycles.

The research to date has determined that bicycle use will be insignificant and as such, it has not been included on any publicly-available documents. I know that bicycle use on game days will be a low percentage of modal share but I am not satisfied that the research has been done correctly. It would be good to find out how the research was conducted and a more detailed explanation of the results.

There was a 'walkability' map shown in the Master Plan document last August. It got me thinking about what a 'bikeability' map might look like. There is nothing available from the Perth Stadium planners, so I thought I would do a quick map myself.

My idea was to show the potential catchment area for people who might travel by bicycle to attend the stadium. The area does not show the catchment for seasoned commuters or the enthusiasts, it shows the much smaller area for people who know how to ride but are not confident in traffic. People who have basic skills and prefer to relax and enjoy the ride.

The first step was to decide on the journey time. For this, I took a guess at 45 minutes from home to stadium. That seemed to be a reasonable period of travel for the total journey in comparison with a the various combinations of the alternatives such as 'drive-walk-train-walk'. At an average speed of 15 kilometres per hour, the furthest point from the stadium would have to be within a radius of 10 kilometres.

The various routes to the stadium would have to be on bicycle paths or shared paths that are separated from motorised traffic. I imagined that riders would probably be OK with travelling for approximately one kilometre through quieter suburban streets to reach the paths.

It is interesting once you examine the position of the stadium. There are a number of good paths that already feed into the Burswood area. Most of Perth's best bicycle infrastructure has been built along routes that have been easy to secure. Routes on public land without too many conflicting interests such as railway reserves and following the banks of the Swan River. The stadium site is in a great position to take advantage of this existing infrastructure. You can see examples of these paths in the photographs below.

Shared path Burswood, 1.5 km from stadium site

Shared path East Perth, 2 km from stadium site

Shared path East Perth, 2 km from stadium site

Shared path Bayswater, 5 km from stadium site

Shared path Perth 7 km from stadium site

Here is how the 'bikeability' map looks. I have shown all the existing separated paths that radiate from the stadium site in red. The shaded blue area is the zone that fits all of the criteria. The people who live or work in the blue zone would be able to reach the stadium by bicycle with a 45 minute ride.

The stadium site is shown with a blue 'S' near the centre of the map. The new bridge will extend the catchment area for bicycle riders in the areas west of the stadium. My rough estimate is the bridge would reduce the distance by one kilometre which will help extend the range of the 45 minute travel zone further into the suburbs of Crawley, Nedlands, Subiaco, Shenton Park and Leederville.

Conversely, if the proposed Elizabeth Quay and Riverside developments restrict the movement of bicycles by severing the paths to the west of stadium, much of the advantage of the new bridge will be lost.

Elizabeth Quay and Riverside are being controlled by the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority and the Perth Stadium is being handled by the Department of Treasury with the Department of Sport and Recreation. All parts of the Western Australian state government. My question is: are they talking to each other?

Riverside development

The map is based on the following:

• Fully separated cycle paths or bicycle/pedestrian shared paths for 90% of the journey. The remaining 10% quiet streets.

• A travel time of 45 minutes, door-to-door (house to stadium).

• An average speed of 15 kilometres per hour.

• Maximum distance 9 kilometres on a separated path plus up to 1 kilometre on the road.

• The area around the Perth central business district and Northbridge shows a smaller radius  to allow for walking with bicycles for 500 metres to reach the paths instead of riding on the roads

• Distance calculations have included the proposed new bridge between Burswood and East Perth.