Port Drive/Guy Street roundabout opens ahead of schedule

Published on 31 August 2023

Regular users of the roads to the south of Broome will be pleased to know the new roundabout designed to make one of Broome’s most notorious intersections safer has opened ahead of schedule.

Work on the roundabout at the Port Drive and Guy Street intersection began in mid-June and was expected to be completed by the end of September.

However, the availability of road surfacing equipment from the south of the state allowed the project to be completed a month earlier than anticipated.

Detours have been in place around the construction zone since the work commenced, and apart from issues during school times on Dakas Street, traffic managed to continue moving smoothly.

The $1.4 million project has eliminated one of Broome’s worst traffic accident black spots, with the old T-intersection subject to a significant overrepresentation of crashes in the Shire of Broome.

The old intersection, which included a slip lane off Port Drive into Guy Street from the north, had seen at least nine serious accidents since 2016.

RoadLine Civil, the contractor engaged in carrying out the work, initially had issues with plant availability in the region but could complete the project one month ahead of schedule after equipment became available.

The project was made possible due to $520,000 in State Black Spot funding, a Main Roads WA $350,000 Road Project Grant and a $125,000 contribution from Roads to Recovery grant funding through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.