SOUTHERN ADELAIDE TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:17): It gives me great pleasure to rise here today to talk about the wonderful infrastructure build that is happening in the southern parts of Adelaide. Last Friday, the federal member for Kingston, Amanda Rishworth, the member for Kaurna (our health minister, John Hill), and I were fortunate enough to be among the first non-construction people to walk on the new bridge that spans the Onkaparinga River, the 1.2 kilometre rail bridge that is the third longest incrementally launched bridge in the world, the longest in Australia. That stands as a great testament to the planners from the Department of Transport and Infrastructure and the joint venturers who have taken on the project to build that bridge.

The bridge, of course, is a very important component of the extension of the rail line from Noarlunga down to Seaford. By next year we will see the delivery of the very first electric trains in South Australia as we electrify the line to Seaford. Testing and driver training will be carried out on the line between Seaford and Noarlunga during next year and, by the end of next year, passengers in the south will be able to travel on the electric trains into the city. It will be a 35 minute trip, so a very quick, very quiet, very fuel-efficient journey from Seaford into the city. It will be 35 minutes on a non-stop train trip.

As I said, it is a 1.2 kilometre bridge, and it is part of the $291.2 million Seaford rail extension. I must pay tribute to the federal government. It has come to the party with a great deal of funding. As I mentioned at the outset, Amanda Rishworth was there last week. Amanda has done a great job working with local members, such as John and myself, so that we can get the maximum amount of funding from both the state and federal governments to really build the southern part of Adelaide.

If we look just across from the Seaford rail bridge, we see the Southern Expressway, which is coming along in leaps and bounds. Unfortunately there are a lot of road restrictions on there, and there are a lot of speed restrictions where people have to slow down to 60. We must remind people that that is entirely the fault of the former Liberal government for not having the foresight to build the bridges wide enough for the duplication to take place down the track. Not only did they not have the foresight to build a two-way expressway in the first place, they also did not have the common sense to build the bridges wide enough.

Each of those bridges, with the exception of one because of the geographical line that it is in, has to be extended so that we can fit the extra two lanes in one part and four lanes in another part onto the western side of the existing expressway. We apologise to those people who are having to slow down on the expressway while the work is being undertaken, but we all know who is responsible for that.

The Southern Expressway duplication is entirely funded by the state government, and work should be finished by midway through 2014. I am very happy to say that I have been chairing the Southern Expressway Employment Taskforce, and we are making sure that as much work as possible goes to people and companies living and working in southern Adelaide. We are achieving very high targets. We set 50 per cent and we are running at about 50 per cent at this stage. We are continuing to monitor those figures to ensure that the south not only benefits from having a two-way expressway but it benefits from having the lion's share of the $400 million worth of work that goes into that.

Another great piece of infrastructure that members across the other side would have noticed when they went to McLaren Vale last week for their love-in is the McLaren Vale overpass, an $18 million project that will be finished ahead of schedule. The first car should be driving on that well before Christmas and the landscaping will take place in autumn next year, when it is the right time to be planting trees, I am told. So, that is $18 million, again with the federal government chipping in a lot of money there.

We thank the federal government, in particular the minister, Anthony Albanese, for the cooperation that they are showing, but it is also testament to the fact that our department and our minister, Patrick Conlon, always have plans on the go, ready to implement them. As soon as there is federal government money there, they want to see projects that stack up, so if you go to the government and say, 'We have this project, all that is lacking is federal funding,' they will get in behind it. The McLaren Vale overpass, the duplication of the Southern Expressway, and the Seaford rail bridge which will be open on Saturday week—very good infrastructure news in the south.