Major WA Infrastructure Projects Worth Knowing About
New rail lines, freeway extensions, an expanding regional airport, and a new container port — the public infrastructure pipeline reshaping accessibility across WA.
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Infrastructure investment doesn’t guarantee property price growth, and nothing here should be read as a prediction. But new transport links and regional infrastructure genuinely change how accessible an area is — and accessibility is one of several factors that influence buyer demand over time. Here’s what’s actually underway in WA, not just proposed.
Metronet — Perth’s rail network expansion
Metronet is the WA Government’s decade-long program of new and extended passenger rail lines across Perth. As of 2026, most of the program has landed:
- Byford rail extension (south-east growth corridor) — the Armadale line’s 8km extension to a new station at Byford opened in October 2025
- Yanchep rail extension (northern growth corridor) — completed and operating, extending the Joondalup line further into Perth’s fast-growing north
- Midland Station — the final piece of the original Metronet commitment, opening February 2026
New rail stations typically change commute times and access for the suburbs around them — something worth factoring in if you’re comparing an outer-growth-corridor suburb against an established, already-connected one.
Freeway and highway upgrades
- Mitchell Freeway Extension to Romeo Road — opened in 2023, extending the freeway from Clarkson to Alkimos and improving access to Perth’s far northern suburbs (Butler, Yanchep, Alkimos, Eglinton) — the same corridor the Yanchep rail extension now also serves
- Tonkin Highway Gap project — upgrades to Tonkin Highway between Collier Road and Great Eastern Highway, including new interchanges at Hale Road and Welshpool Road East, improving east and south-east Perth connectivity (Forrestfield, Kalamunda, Welshpool). Construction is expected to start late 2026 and run roughly two years
- Bunbury Outer Ring Road (Wilman Wadandi Highway) — a $1.46 billion, 27km ring road around Bunbury linking Forrest Highway to Bussell Highway, opened to traffic in December 2024, with remaining works continuing through to around August 2026
Busselton Margaret River Airport expansion
A $70 million upgrade — a lengthened, widened and strengthened runway plus a new terminal — is enabling the airport to handle larger narrow- and wide-body aircraft (Boeing 737 / Airbus A320 / A330 class), not just smaller regional planes. That matters for the South West WA lifestyle and tourism market (Busselton, Dunsborough, Margaret River, the wine region) because it raises the ceiling on future direct interstate — and potentially international — flight capacity into a region that currently relies heavily on road access from Perth or connections via Perth Airport.
Westport — a new container port at Kwinana
Westport is WA’s plan for its first new metropolitan container port in more than a century, located at Kwinana south of Perth. As of 2026 it’s in “Stage 4 — Definition and Delivery,” with a Westport Authority being established to oversee delivery. This is a genuinely long-dated project — construction is expected to start in the late 2020s, subject to approvals and a final investment decision, with the port becoming operational in the late 2030s.
It’s worth knowing about for two reasons: it signals long-term state investment in the Kwinana/Rockingham corridor, and over time it’s expected to change the role of Fremantle’s current inner harbour, which is publicly discussed as a candidate for future urban renewal once container operations relocate — though that’s a much longer-horizon consideration than anything else on this page.
How to use this information
Infrastructure proximity is one input among many — population growth, housing supply, interest rates, and local planning decisions all matter too, and past correlation between infrastructure investment and price growth doesn’t guarantee future results for any specific property. Treat this as background for your own research, not a shortlist of “guaranteed growth suburbs” — and check Main Roads WA and METRONET directly for current project timelines, since major infrastructure projects can be delayed or rescoped.