Graham Farmer Freeway

The Graham Farmer Freeway is a 6.5-kilometre (4.0 mi) inner-city freeway in Perth, Western Australia. It links the Mitchell Freeway in West Perth to Great Eastern Highway and Orrong Road in Burswood, providing an east–west bypass of the Perth central business district. Named after Australian rules footballer Polly Farmer, the Graham Farmer Freeway has a 1.6-kilometre (1 mi) cut-and-cover tunnel through Northbridge known as the Northbridge Tunnel.

After decades of proposals, the Western Australian state government committed in 1993 to building the City Northern Bypass, as it was known at the time. After trenched and partially tunnelled options were assessed, it was chosen that the bypass would be fully tunnelled through Northbridge. The construction was split into two main contracts. The section from the Mitchell Freeway to East Parade, including the Northbridge Tunnel, was constructed by the Baulderstone–Clough Joint Venture. The section from East Parade to Great Eastern Highway, including the Windan Bridge across the Swan River, was constructed by the Transfield Thiess Joint Venture.

The Northbridge Tunnel was constructed top-down, by constructing the ceiling and walls first, then excavating the inside. This caused large disruption to Northbridge. Construction on the tunnel started in March 1997 from the western end; breakthrough at the eastern end was achieved in January 1999. The Windan Bridge was constructed between December 1997 and September 1999 using the incremental launch method. The Graham Farmer Freeway opened to traffic on 24 April 2000, resulting in a decrease in traffic on The Causeway and Riverside Drive. In 2013, a third lane was added to the tunnel in each direction by subsuming the emergency stopping lane.