Kalgoorlie-Meekatharra Road contract awarded

20/7/95

Transport Minister Eric Charlton today announced the awarding of a Main Roads contract to construct 16 kilometres of the Kalgoorlie-Meekatharra Road to the sealed stage and a catering and cleaning services contract for a construction camp at Manilya Bridge.

The $16 million contract awarded to MacMahon Contractors is for the construction of the section known locally as Yeeha.

The works will commence mid-August and take about five months, completing the sealed road link between Leinster and Mt Keith.

Mr Charlton said the planning had been designed to avoid any impact on sensitive areas of cultural significance to Aboriginal people through the Yeeha Pass area.  It was part of a $23 million program to improve the road between Lake Miranda and Mt Keith.

GB Catering won a $75,000 contract for the provision of catering and cleaning services for the Main Roads construction camp at Manilya Bridge, 140 kilometres North of Carnarvon.

The camp was established for the second stage of the construction of a 12-kilometre realignment of the North West Coastal Highway across the Barrabiddy Creek system, south of Manilya.

Stage one of the Barrabiddy deviation was completed in December last year and the final stage, due to commence shortly, would be completed before December 1995. Total cost of the project was $4.5 million.

"The Barrabiddy Deviation will improve driver safety and comfort by replacing a deteriorating and winding section of the highway with an alignment which will shorten by two kilometres, the journey between Carnarvon and Manilya," Mr Charlton said.

Media contact:  Ian Hasleby 321 7333