Sampson Flat Bushfire

The Hon. T.R. KENYON (Newland) (15:38): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Can the minister update the house on the government's efforts to repair critical road infrastructure and reopen roads following the Sampson Flat bushfires?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister Assisting the Minister for Planning, Minister Assisting the Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:38): I thank the member for Newland for his question and his obvious interest in the subject, given that his electorate was affected by the recent Sampson Flat bushfires. The member for Morialta has expressed a keen interest in this area for similar reasons.

There are of course many who should be recognised for their substantial contribution to the Sampson Flat bushfire effort, and the Minister for Emergency Services made reference to them earlier: our CFS and SES volunteers, South Australia Police, volunteer groups such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army and, of course, all the local community and sporting clubs who assisted the community to recover.

However, one aspect of the bushfire recovery effort was the works undertaken to reopen the roads. This year's fires had a substantial impact on the road network in the fire-affected area. As soon as it was safe to do so, the CFS and SAPOL gave the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure officers access to the roads. These staff, and contractors assisting these staff, were out in the local area to survey the damage and commence the significant task of repairing the fire-affected road infrastructure that was necessary before reopening the roads.

The fires caused sections of roads to become impassable with fallen trees, as well as the risk of burnt-out trees at the roadside collapsing. The fires also damaged road infrastructure such as signage, guardrails, delineators (reflectors), line marking and, in some areas, pavement surfaces. Overall, over 35 kilometres of road was cleared in an effort by DPTI, local council and contractor staff.

The first task was the removal of debris and trees. Arborists and tree removal specialists were engaged to individually inspect trees, literally walking down each of the roads inspecting each tree on the roadside for potential risks that they might pose to the road area and marking for removal those with the potential to collapse and cause hazards to road users. These arborists were followed by teams of tree removal contractors, who removed those marked trees.

The work to repair the road network involved 56 of these tree removal specialists, with the assistance of 44 often very heavy pieces of machinery, 20 arborists, as well as management staff to provide direction and assessments during these works. The very substantial amount of wood from the pruning and felling has been stockpiled and is being managed by council officers.

The roads are all open to traffic and, as of 7 February, have an 80 km/h speed limit while reparatory works continue along these roads. Some of these works include replacing guardrails and other minor tasks, and that will necessitate speed restrictions during the time that these works are undertaken. I am advised that most signs and guardrails have, however, been replaced and that the task to complete all this work will be done in the coming days. New signage had to be sourced from manufacturers, which caused some of the delay in reopening these roads. At the current time, it is estimated that the cost just for the road network recovery is nearly $3 million.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank transport and council staff, as well as the contractors, for their extraordinary round-the-clock efforts to get these roads reopened. I know that there was very understandable and significant frustration from landowners within the fire-affected area regarding the time it took to provide access to these roads, to make these roads safe, so that people could attend to their properties. However, as I am sure all can imagine, safety is paramount in these considerations and I know that CFS and SAPOL officers, as well as all the road recovery teams, worked as quickly as possible to provide access to these roads.