Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

South Road is an important infrastructure issue and a long saga in my electorate. In 2005, the RAA of South Australia announced their vision for South Road, which was to have 22 kilometres of non-stop expressway. In 2006, the South Australian Labor government said that they would fix the intersection at South Road and Sturt Road, providing an underpass there. The idea of a non-stop expressway has the support of the City of Marion, the City of Onkaparinga—the two southern local government areas—as well as the Southern Adelaide Economic Development Board. In 2007, the federal Labor Party committed $500 million to South Road. This sum included money to fix the Sturt Road-South Road intersection. In September 2008, the federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport along with the South Australian state Minister for Transport announced $500 million in funding to construct flyovers and grade separations at three bottlenecks on South Road, one of which was the Sturt Road intersection.

What has happened since 2006 at this intersection? Absolutely nothing; the Sturt Road-South Road intersection looks the same today as it did in 2006, but the traffic volumes are much higher and the transit times are much greater. South Road is the main north-south transport corridor through Adelaide—it services a large portion of the light truck and semitrailer transport moving between the north and the south of the city—and the southern suburbs have been dudded while all the money that was dedicated to fixing this intersection has been spent on the superway in the north. Meanwhile, the delays at the Sturt Road-South Road intersection have been increasing every year. Only two years ago the state and federal ministers announced that they would be extending the Tonsley rail line to Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University. The only funding that has been provided for this area is to fund the Darlington transport study. What this has provided is a very good video but unfortunately no money to fund any infrastructure. The Darlington transport study suggests grade separating Main South Road as an underpass, extending below Flinders Drive and Sturt Road. I call on the government to meet their commitment that they made in 2007 to fix this intersection and see that it is properly funded, as they promised it would be in November 2007. This will be good for residents in my electorate but also all of southern Adelaide.