State and federal environmental approvals dictate that only 1088 black cockatoo potential nesting trees and 11 trees with suitable hollows can be removed.

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The environmentalists are calling on Plibersek to not approve any management plans for fauna removal under the overarching federal environmental approval until further investigations are finished.

A Main Roads WA spokeswoman said the road had received all its required environmental approvals after a rigorous independent assessment process.

“Construction on the southern section will begin once all relevant conditions have been met, which is expected to be in the coming weeks,” she said.

Plibersek’s office was contacted for comment. WA Environment Minister Reece Whitby provided state approval to the southern end of the project on May 31.

Construction started on the northern and central sections of the road project last year after a planning period which began in 2018, although it has been talked about since the 1970s.

The four-lane road has come under criticism recently from the WA opposition for its cost blowouts.

Opposition transport spokesman Shane Love says the project will be the state’s most expensive piece of road infrastructure and had gone through a radical change in scope.

“Four roundabouts will replace flyovers, meaning the project will now be 27 kilometres of standard road rather than 27 kilometres of freeway,” he said.

“Taxpayers won’t know the true cost and motorists won’t gain the full value of the BORR until the original design is built.

“The project management should have been reviewed before it got to this point. Instead, more money has been thrown in an effort to try and solve the issues at hand.”

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti told a budget estimates hearing in May that no one could have anticipated the cost increases facing major infrastructure projects due to the housing market in WA going crazy and the war in Ukraine.

She said after a review of the project its scope was up to the federal government, which was a joint-funder.

“It funded 80 per cent of it and wanted to include the full interchanges, but we made the pragmatic and right decision to change the scope slightly,” she said.

“It still will not impact on some of those efficiency savings to any great degree; the design of the roundabouts will ensure that. It will still be a very big project that will not only improve efficiency for the whole corridor, but also provide better connections into the [Bunbury] port.”

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