Leach Highway

Leach Highway is one of the state's most important heavy vehicle routes. It links the major industrial areas of Kewdale and Welshpool with Western Australia's major container port at Fremantle.[1]

Although the Leach Highway's western terminus is at Carrington Street in Palmyra, High Street continues for a further 1.5 km (0.9 mi) into Fremantle, and connects it to the Stirling Highway.

Leach Highway is named for J. D. "Digby" Leach, former Commissioner of Main Roads Western Australia. Construction began in 1966, with the first section opened between its present western terminus at Carrington Street, Melville (now Palmyra), and High Road in Canning (now Willetton) in 1972.[2]

It was soon extended eastward from High Road through to Manning Road, utilising the old timber Riverton Bridge over the Canning River via Barbican Street East and what is now Fern Road and Grayson Court.[3] In 1976 it was further extended from Manning Road to Orrong Road, including bridges over Albany Highway in Bentley and the Armadale railway line in Welshpool. Then in 1978 the 4-lane concrete Shelley Bridge over Canning River opened, with Riverton Bridge retained for local traffic.[2][3]

In the early 1980s the highway was extended further eastward, first to Hardey Road and, soon thereafter, to the new Beechboro-Gosnells Highway (now called Tonkin Highway) which remains as the highway's present eastern terminus.

Also around that time a number of intersections were built to coincide with new roads being built around Leach Highway. A parclo interchange was constructed at the newly extended Kwinana Freeway, and an intersection was constructed for the new Centenary Avenue in Wilson to improve access to the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), now called Curtin University. New at-grade intersections were built at Murdoch Drive and Winthrop Drive to service the new suburbs of Bateman and Winthrop.

Although not strictly Leach Highway, in 1985 Stirling Highway was extended southwards from its then terminus at Canning Highway to a new terminus at High Street (an extension of Leach Highway). This marked the final piece of an improved freight link between the Port of Fremantle and Perth's major industrial areas around Kewdale.

Apart from minor modifications, the Leach Highway remained largely unchanged until 2005/2006 when work on projects at Kwinana Freeway and Orrong Road commenced.

As Leach Highway is not limited access, a large number of the roads that Leach Highway are connected to are not controlled. Major intersections are at-grade and controlled. Exceptions are the Albany Highway, Orrong Road and Abernethy Road, which are grade separated in favour of Leach Highway. The first two are diamond interchanges, while the latter is a single-point urban interchange (SPUI). Although also grade-separated, the Centenary Avenue interchange is controlled by traffic lights on the westbound side of the highway.

LGA	Location	km	mi	Destinations	Notes
Belmont	Perth Airport, Cloverdale, Kewdale tripoint	0.00	0.00	Tonkin Highway (State Route 4)  – Morley, Ellenbrook, Armadale, Perth Airport terminals T3/T4	Grand Gateway interchange; modified combination interchange; northbound-to-westbound controlled by traffic lights at the Leach Highway/Abernethy Road interchange due to close distance to Abernethy Road interchange. Leach Highway eastbound terminus, continues as Airport Drive northeastbound to Perth Airport terminals T1/T2
	Cloverdale, Kewdale boundary	1.40	0.87	Abernethy Road (State Route 55),  – Belmont, Hazelmere	Single-point urban interchange, also handles Tonkin northbound to Leach westbound traffic prior to merging to avoid the need for weaving.
Belmont-Canning boundary	Kewdale, Welshpool boundary	3.3	2.1	Orrong Road (State Route 8),  – Perth, Burswood, Kalamunda	Signalised diamond interchange.
Canning	Welshpool	4.4	2.7	Welshpool Road,  – East Victoria Park, East Cannington	Roundabout interchange.
	Bentley	6.1	3.8	Albany Highway (State Route 30),  – Perth, Victoria Park, Cannington, Albany	Signalised diamond interchange.
	Bentley, Wilson boundary	6.7	4.2	Manning Road (State Route 26),  – Manning, Waterford, Cannington
	Wilson	7.8	4.8	Bungaree Road
		8.6	5.3	Centenary Avenue - Curtin University	Modified parclo interchange, Leach eastbound free flowing while Leach westbound has a signalised intersection with the Centenary Avenue onramp. All three other ramps are uncontrolled, meeting to the north at a signalised intersection with a bus lane priority arrangement in place.
Canning River		8.8– 9.1	5.5– 5.7	Shelley Bridge
Canning	Shelley	10.1	6.3	Barbican Street West west / Vahland Avenue south - Willetton, Leeming
	Riverton, Shelley, Willetton tripoint	11.7	7.3	High Road (State Route 27) - Parkwood, Lynwood
	Rossmoyne, Willetton boundary	12.4	7.7	Karel Avenue - Bull Creek, Leeming, Jandakot Airport
Canning-Melville boundary	Rossmoyne, Bull Creek boundary	13.0	8.1	Webb Street
Melville	Brentwood, Bull Creek boundary	13.8	8.6	Bull Creek Drive
	Brentwood–Bateman–Bull Creek tripoint	14.1– 14.5	8.8– 9.0	Kwinana Freeway (National Route 1 northbound only/ State Route 2) – Perth, Joondalup, Rockingham	National Route 1 eastern concurrency terminus; modified Parclo interchange with Leach westbound to Kwinana northbound and Leach eastbound to Kwinana southbound looped: access to Bull Creek railway station
	Brentwood–Bateman boundary	15.0	9.3	Moolyeen Road - Mount Pleasant, Applecross
	Bateman–Booragoon-Winthrop tripoint	15.3	9.5	Murdoch Drive - Murdoch, Murdoch University
	Booragoon-Winthrop boundary	16.0	9.9	Riseley Street - Ardross
		17.0	10.6	Winthrop Drive - Kardinya
	Myaree-Winthrop boundary	17.3	10.7	Norma Road	No right turn from Norma Road to Leach Highway westbound
	Myaree-Winthrop-Willagee tripoint	17.9	11.1	North Lake Road - Alfred Cove, Kardinya, Cockburn Central
	Melville-Palmyra-Willagee boundary	20.0	12.4	Stock Road (National Route 1) - Attadale, O'Connor, Rockingham	National Route 1 western concurrency terminus
Melville-Fremantle boundary	Palmyra-Fremantle boundary	21.4	13.3	Carrington Street - Bicton, White Gum Valley, Hamilton Hill	Leach Highway westbound terminus, continues as High Street (State Route 7) to Fremantle
Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Western Australia
• Freeways in Australia
• Freeways in Western Australia

• Edmonds, Leigh (1997). The vital link: a history of Main Roads Western Australia 1926-1996. Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 1-875560-87-4.
• StreetSmart Perth 2003 Street Directory. Midland, Western Australia: Department of Land Administration and West Australian Newspapers Ltd. 2002. ISBN 0-909699-87-9.
• Main Roads WA, Gateway WA Project Master Plan, Page 7

• Main Roads Western Australia