The Kwinana Freeway is a freeway in and beyond the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking central Perth with Mandurah to the south. It is the central section of State Route 2, which continues north as Mitchell Freeway to Alkimos, and south as Forrest Highway towards Bunbury. A section between Canning and Leach highways is also part of National Route 1. Along its route are interchanges with several major roads, including Roe Highway and Mandjoogoordap Drive. The northern terminus of the Kwinana Freeway is at the Narrows Bridge, which crosses the Swan River, and the southern terminus is at Pinjarra Road, east of Mandurah.
Planning for the Kwinana Freeway began in the 1950s, and the first segment in South Perth was constructed between 1956 and 1959. The route has been progressively widened and extended south since then. During the 1980s, the freeway was extended to South Street in Murdoch, and in June 2001, it reached Safety Bay Road in Baldivis. The final extension began as the New Perth Bunbury Highway project, constructed between December 2006 and September 2009. In early 2009, the section north of Pinjarra Road was named as part of the Kwinana Freeway, with the remainder named Forrest Highway. The freeway has been adapted to cater for public transport, with the introduction of bus priority measures in 1987, and the 2007 opening of the Mandurah railway line, constructed in the freeway median strip.
Route description The Kwinana Freeway is the central section of State Route 2. It commences at the northern end of the Narrows Bridge, Perth, continuing south from the Mitchell Freeway, and terminates at the Pinjarra Road interchange at Barragup, where it then transitions to Forrest Highway. All intersections with the freeway are grade separated. Route access is controlled and the speed limit is north of South Terrace, increasing to north of Safety Bay Road, while south of the road route access is uncontrolled, though it remains a state route and the speed limit becomes . From Perth to Mill Point Road, the freeway has five lanes northbound and six lanes southbound, including a bus lane in the southbound direction only. South of Mill Point Road to Roe Highway/Murdoch Drive the freeway is three lanes southbound and four lanes northbound with no hard shoulder north of Canning Highway reducing to three lanes south of Canning without any bus lanes except for bus-only ramps at the Canning Bridge interchange. At the Roe Highway interchange, an extra lane is added, providing four lanes in both directions until the following Berrigan Drive interchange. After passing under Berrigan Drive's underpass the main freeway becomes three lanes in both directions again with collector-distributor lanes forming. The lanes handle traffic using the southern ramps on Berrigan Drive, the northern ramps on Beeliar Drive and provide access to the Armadale Road/North Lake Road/ Cockburn Central railway station access interchange. Three lanes reduce to two lanes in each direction at Russell Road/Gibbs Road, which remains until the terminus at Pinjarra Road. The median strip of the freeway north of The Spectacles also houses the Mandurah railway line. A shared pedestrian and bicycle path is built alongside all of the freeway since the area around Cranford Avenue was upgraded in 2022. The northbound section of Kwinana Freeway north of Roe Highway, since 2020, is a smart freeway system, with ramp signalling north of Roe Highway, variable speed limits north of Cranford Avenue, and hard shoulder running north of Canning Highway.
Main Roads Western Australia monitors traffic volume across the state's road network, including many locations along the Kwinana Freeway. The busiest section is at the northern end, on the Narrows Bridge, which averaged over 93,000 vehicles per weekday in 1979. This increased to over 135,000 in 1988/89, 156,000 in 1998/99, and 160,000 in 2007/08. The volume generally declines as the freeway travels south, with the fewest vehicles recorded near the southern end. There were fewer than 46,000 vehicles per weekday near the Canning Highway terminus in 1978, while in 1998/89 there were under 45,000 north of South Street. For 1998/99 there were fewer than 27,000 vehicles per weekday north of Thomas Road, and during 2007/08 fewer than 38,000 were recorded between Mundijong Road and Safety Bay Road. , the Kwinana Freeway is one of the most congested commuter routes in Perth, during peak traffic periods. The average speed when driving north from Cockburn Central was measured as less than during the morning peak. The slowest section was from South Street to Canning Highway, with an average travel speed of . During the afternoon peak, the worst segment was southbound between Manning Road and Leach Highway, with a average speed.
Swan and Canning Rivers
The Kwinana Freeway begins at the Narrows Bridge, and travels south from The Narrows alongside the Swan and Canning Rivers. South of the bridge is a northbound exit to Mill Point Road, whilst the southbound exit and both entrance ramps to the freeway are located a further south. To the east of the freeway are residential homes in South Perth and Como, as well as the Royal Perth Golf Club. There is a southbound exit to South Terrace which provides access to the local area. Public access to the Swan River's foreshore is available via footbridges that cross the freeway.
The first major interchange is with Canning Highway. National Route 1 is allocated to Canning Highway to the east, and to the Kwinana Freeway to the south of the interchange. The design is a diamond interchange, with additional bus-only ramps connecting to the median lanes of the freeway. The Canning Bridge bus and railway transfer station is located at the interchange. A partial Y interchange with Manning Road, consisting of a northbound entrance ramp and southbound entrance and exit ramp, is located south of Canning Highway. These ramps merge with the ramps on the south side of the Canning Highway interchange, allowing access between the highway and Manning Road. The Kwinana Freeway continues south, with the suburbs of Manning and Salter Point to the east, and Canning River to its west. The freeway passes by Aquinas College, south of Manning Road, and reaches the Mount Henry Peninsula after another .
The Mount Henry Bridge carries the freeway across the Canning River, from Salter Point to Mount Pleasant. The freeway travels through the suburb for to Cranford Avenue, a half-diamond interchange with northbound entrance and southbound exit ramps. The Kwinana Freeway continues south for another through Brentwood to Leach Highway.
Southern suburbs of Perth Through the southern suburbs of Perth, the Kwinana Freeway travels south as the boundary between various suburbs. The Leach Highway interchange houses the Bull Creek train and bus interchange station, and the Murdoch Station is co-located with the South Street interchange, further south. Halfway between these interchanges, Parry Avenue crosses the freeway via an overpass, connecting the suburbs of Bateman and Bull Creek. Beyond South Street, the land east of the Kwinana Freeway, in the suburb of Leeming, continues to be residential, whilst to the west the freeway passes by educational and health care facilities in Murdoch. Challenger TAFE, Murdoch University, St John of God Murdoch Hospital, and Fiona Stanley Hospital are adjacent to the freeway, though there is no direct access. The next interchange, after , is with Farrington Road, which marks the southern edge of Murdoch. This is a half-diamond interchange that only serves traffic travelling to or from areas further north.
A free-flowing combination interchange, south of Farrington Road, connects the Kwinana Freeway to Roe Highway and Murdoch Drive. The interchange is situated between four suburbs: Leeming, (north-east), North Lake (north-west), Bibra Lake, (south-west), and Jandakot. Roe Highway is part of State Route 3, Perth's ring route, and is a major controlled-access link to Perth's north-east while Murdoch Drive provides an alternative southern access option to the aforementioned educational and health care facilities in Murdoch. Full movements are allowed for Roe Highway while Murdoch Drive only allows access for traffic travelling to and from areas further south (South Street and Farrington Road already cover the northern movements). There have been long-standing but controversial plans to extend Roe Highway west to Hamilton Hill, which would necessitate upgrading the interchange further. Following Roe Highway, the freeway continues its journey south, between the residential areas of South Lake and Jandakot. Houses east of the freeway surround the Glen Iris Public Golf Course.
After there is a diamond interchange with Berrigan Drive. Here collector-distributor lanes form on both sides of the freeway, which now passes lower density lots in Cockburn Central and the industrial section of Jandakot. The freeway reaches the next interchange after , a north-facing half-diamond interchange connecting with Armadale Road to the east and North Lake Road to the west. After a further the full-diamond interchange with Beeliar Drive is reached, whereupon the collector-distributor lanes merge back into the freeway. The Cockburn Central train station is located in the freeway median, north of the interchange. The freeway continues travelling south through the developing outer metropolitan suburbs of Atwell and Aubin Grove, east of the freeway, and Success and Hammond Park, west of the freeway. Here it connects to Russell Road and Gibbs Road via a diamond interchange after (with Aubin Grove train station located north in the freeway median), and to Rowley Road after a further .
South of Rowley Road South of the Rowley Road diamond interchange, development is sparse, except in Bertram, southwest of the Thomas Road interchange. The freeway progresses through swampy rural land for , passing by Lake Balmanup in Wandi on its way to the diamond interchange at Anketell Road. The Kwinana Freeway continues south along the edge of Jandakot Regional Park, near to The Spectacles Wetlands, reaching Thomas Road after another . The Mandurah rail line deviates from the freeway median north of the interchange, thereafter travelling south-west towards Rockingham. From Thomas Road to the next interchange at Mortimer Road, further south, the land to the west of the freeway in Bertram has been developed into a residential area. After the latter interchange, development again becomes sparse, as the freeway travels south near swampland and bodies of water, including Folly Pool and Maramanup Pool. The next interchanges are with Mundijong Road after , Safety Bay Road after another , and Karnup Road following a further . There is a pocket of newly developed urban land near Safety Bay Road, south of the freeway.
South of Karnup Road, the following two interchanges are constructed as dogbone interchanges, which use roundabouts instead of traffic lights to control the intersections between ramps. The Kwinana Freeway follows the Serpentine River southwards, with no interchanges for . At this point, there is an interchange with Paganoni Road to the west and Vine Road to the east. After the freeway leaves the Perth Metropolitan Region, and encounters the next interchange with Lymon Road and Mandjoogoordap Drive. Lymon Road provides access to Stake Hill, although Mandjoogoordap Drive is not a controlled access route into Mandurah. Following this interchange, the freeway turns south-east, where it encounters a diamond interchange with Lakes Road after . The freeway ends further south, at the Pinjarra Road folded diamond interchange in Ravenswood. The road, and State Route 2, continue south as Forrest Highway towards Bunbury.
History