Upgrades for ‘shocking’ SA regional roads
New road upgrades have been announced for regional South Australia, but one mayor told InDaily it’s the latest in a series of “Band-Aid” fixes.
As part of $168 million of joint state and federal funding for regional road improvements, $10 million worth of upgrades have today been announced for the South East, Spencer Gulf, Flinders and Adelaide Hills regions.
The junction at Southern Ports Highway and Southern Access road will be upgraded, with a left turn lane to be built at a cost of $400,000.
Wattle Ranges Council Mayor Des Noll told InDaily while the junction upgrade was welcome, the highway was in a “shocking condition”.
“It’s a distance of about 12 kilometres, I’d suggest, and in time the whole road will need to be rebuilt,” he said.
“As much as we enjoy having funding put into it, into doing it up, generally they are Band Aid effects, and we need the whole section of that road, of the Southern Ports Highway, to be properly rebuilt in time.”
Noll said the turn off to Southend Access Road had “always been an issue for the local community”.
“There’s been numerous potential serious accidents happen there, and so the community came together from south end and has advocated for this for some years now.
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“The state government are $2 billion in maintenance arrears to our roads in South Australia, and I’d suggest a large portion of that is in the Wattle Ranges Council area and the Limestone Coast.
“There’s a lot of work to be done over many years.”
Noll said work at the junction being done by Wattle Ranges Council will begin in summer.
The Spencer Highway between Wallaroo and Moonta will also be upgraded with shoulder sealing, Audio Tactile Line Marking and pavement rehabilitation.
Work on the Spencer Highway is expected to begin next month.
A slip lane near Cummins on the Flinders highway, closed for repairs in 2022. File photo: supplied
The Flinders Highway, south of Wangary to the Western Approach Road junction, will have the same upgrades.
Goolwa Road from Mount Compass to Goolwa will get safety barriers and ATLM, following 11 crashes along the stretch from 2019 to 2023.
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Gorge Road in the Adelaide Hills, from Amber Gully to Corkscrew Road, will also have safety barriers installed after 10 crashes between 2019 and 2023.
Noll said poor road quality not only affected heavy transport such as grain production and logging transport, but tourists as well.
“A lot of tourists travel that road [the Southern Ports Highway] because it’s a coastal road, and that has a big impact economically,” he said.
“If we don’t have the tourists into those coastal towns, then that affects the economics of those communities.”
Noll said Wattle Ranges Council recently resolved to write to Premier Peter Malinauskas, “insisting that the government increase renewal spending on South Australian roads”.
“How I’m feeling about it is that when I see it happening, that’s when I’ll believe it will occur,” he said.
Regional intersections will undergo a review to assess the potential installation of active warning systems, which would see electronic variable speed limit signs at intersections that could slow traffic going into intersections.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the upgrades would “significantly reduce the likelihood of crashes, improving the overall safety of our regional communities”.
“The upgrades will benefit not only locals, but also freight operators and tourists travelling through these regions,” he said.
Federal assistant shadow minister for infrastructure and transport Tony Pasin recently called for further investment into regional roads, saying South Australia needed “increased investment into our regional road network as part of a long term vision”.
“We need the Truro Freight Route to be built dual lane, we need the full duplication of the Augusta, Dukes and Sturt Highways,” he said.
“We needed a commitment to see the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass. These are the productivity enhancing and nation building projects that we need moving forward.”
