Brockman Hwy and Mowen Road get funds for upgrades

Two major roads in Nannup are set to receive multi-million dollar upgrades. The Nannup Shire will begin large-scale modifications to Brockman Highway and Mowen Road after successful grant applications to the Regional Roads Safety Program and the Roads To Recovery Scheme. Estimated cost for the Brockman Highway has topped $2.03 million while the Mowen Road works are estimated to cost in the region of $1.488m, both jointly funded by the RRSP program. The modifications to Brockman Highway will include widening the road by about a metre on each side, removing trees that are too close to the tarmac and adding rumble strips. Shire president Tony Dean said the major factor driving the redevelopment was road safety for travellers. “Particularly the Bridgetown road, Brockman Highway, it’ll make it tremendously safer for the people of Nannup and Bridgetown and the tourism commuters,” he said. “If you’ve driven on that road at any particular time of the day, particularly early in the morning or late in the afternoon and you’re driving with the sun in your eyes then you’ll know it’s a particularly dangerous road. It’s not really up to 21st-century standards.” Cr Dean said the upgrades were part of the Shire’s community strategic plan for which the Shire had been seeking funding for “a long time.” “We’ve been trying for ages to upgrade that Bridgetown road (Brockman Highway) as long as I’ve been on earth,” he said. Main Roads WA was then given the task of contacting individual shires for applications on roads after the State and Federal governments announced funding intentions. Both the Brockman Highway and Mowen Road applications were accepted by Main Roads WA and fell into tranche three works. As a tranche three project, the upgrades must be started and completed between January 1, 2022, and June 30, 2022.