Commuting to and from work isnโt pleasant at the best of times, and can be made even worse when traffic delays make the trip that much longer.
The 120,000 people who travel on Tonkin Highway each day will be glad to know the Tonkin Gap project is expected to shave six minutes off the morning commute and 11 minutes from the trip back home.
These road works will fix a major bottleneck between Collier Road and Dunreath Drive, where traffic reduces from three lanes to two, by widening the highway, building several new bridges, and constructing new shared paths, noise walls and upgraded lighting.
Associated works allow for the METRONET Morley-Ellenbrook Line to run along Tonkin Highway, starting from Bayswater and including stations at Ellenbrook, Whiteman Park, Malaga, Noranda and Morley.
The project is jointly funded by the Federal Government, which is providing $232 million, and the WA State Government, which is chipping in $58 million. Last June, the contract to construct the Tonkin Gap was awarded to Tonkin Gap Alliance, which is made up of BMD, Georgiou Group, WA Limestone, BG&E and GHD.
A project this big has some pretty significant knock-on effects, creating 3,000 jobs. Better yet, the Tonkin Gap Alliance has committed to subcontract to Aboriginal businesses as part of the project, which has recently included Kuuwa supplying vehicles to the project.
Kuuwa was awarded the contract in December, and we are pleased to say we already have Plant & Equipment on site.
Since Kuuwa got started, it has been our objective to help Prescribed Body Corporates create commercial operations to support their people and communities. Being awarded a contract like this is proof that the model works.
The ๐ง๐ผ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐๐น๐น๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ is committed to ‘๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ถ๐ฃ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ด๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ด๐บ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ถ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ด’. –ย Peter Hopfmueller
A big part of the picture connecting indigenous businesses like Kuuwa to projects like this is the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP), which the Tonkin Gap Alliance has embraced.
The IPP provides indigenous Australians with more opportunities to participate in the economy by setting targets around the number and value of contracts to be awarded to indigenous businesses. And it has worked โ since 2015, more than 2,000 indigenous businesses have been involved in close to 25,000 contracts worth over $3.5 billion.
Kuuwa is proud to be a part of the movement to support indigenous communities through construction projects like the Tonkin Gap.