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Roe Highway | |
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Map of Perth's central suburbs with Roe Highway highlighted in red | |
General information | |
Type | Highway |
Length | 35 km (22 mi) |
Opened | 1980s |
Route number(s) |
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Major junctions | |
Northeast end | Reid Highway (State Route 3), Middle Swan |
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Southwest end | Murdoch Drive, Bibra Lake |
Location(s) | |
Major suburbs | Midvale, Hazelmere, Forrestfield, Kewdale, Welshpool, Canning Vale, Leeming, Jandakot |
Highway system | |
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Roe Highway is a 35-kilometre-long (22 mi) limited-access highway and partial freeway in Perth, Western Australia, linking Kewdale with the city's north-eastern and south-western suburbs. The northern terminus is at Reid Highway and Great Northern Highway in Middle Swan, and the southern terminus is with Murdoch Drive at the Kwinana Freeway interchange in Bibra Lake. Roe Highway, in addition to Reid Highway, form State Route 3, a partial ring road around the outer suburbs of the Perth metropolitan area. Roe Highway also forms part of National Highway 94 from Great Eastern Highway Bypass to Great Eastern Highway, and National Highway 95 from Great Eastern Highway to Great Northern Highway.
Although planning for Roe Highway's route began in the 1950s, construction on the highway's first segment only began in 1981, which was opened in 1983, concurrent with the construction of Tonkin Highway and development of the Kewdale industrial area. The highway remains a key heavy vehicle route in the Perth metropolitan area. In the 1980s and 1990s, most of the highway's interchanges with other roads were constructed as at-grade intersections with traffic lights, as were Perth's other arterial highways also constructed during that time. From 2002 to 2006, the 20-kilometre-long (12 mi) section of the highway from Tonkin Highway to Kwinana Freeway was constructed as a continuous freeway, with grade-separated interchanges and free traffic flow, and since 2012 several remaining at-grade intersections of the rest of the highway have been grade-separated. Six at-grade traffic-light controlled intersections remain on the highway today.
Planning provisions have proposed for Roe Highway to be extended from its current south-western terminus in Bibra Lake towards Fremantle since the 1950s. These plans have been controversial amongst conservationist and community groups due to the highway's proposed route through the environmentally sensitive Beeliar Wetlands. The Western Australian state government commenced construction on the first stage of an extension of Roe Highway from Kwinana Freeway to Stock Road (known as Roe Highway Stage 8) in December 2016; construction of the extension was suspended in March 2017 following a change of government in the 2017 state election. The new government has since reconfigured the extension to curve northwards to link with Murdoch Drive instead. Construction on this project commenced in 2018 and was completed in April 2020.