Public Works Committee: Upgrade of Main South Road Between Old Coach Road and Malpas Road, Aldinga

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (11:44): I move:

That the 549^th report of the Public Works Committee, entitled Upgrade of Main South Road between Old Coach Road and Malpas Road, Aldinga, be noted.

This project upgrade will address safety concerns on Main South Road at Aldinga. Between 2005 and 2014 there were 50 recorded casualty crashes between Old Coach Road and Malpas Road. Unfortunately, this has included three fatalities. 78 per cent of the crashes occurred at four key intersections with Main South Road, namely Malpas Road intersection, Little Road intersection, Port Road intersection and Old Coach Road intersection. The T-junction at Port Road and Main South Road is the worst, with a crash history ranking for unsignalised intersections in the metropolitan area of 67 out of 3,690.

The Motor Accident Commission has provided $11.2 million (GST exclusive) for DPTI to improve the section of road. The proposed works include:

a single lane roundabout at Main South Road and Port Road intersection to provide safe right turn access into and out of Port Road, as well as access to Little Road;

pavement widening and shoulder sealing along Main South Road to improve safety for cyclists, as well as motorists;

median wire rope between Malpas Road and Port Road to prevent vehicles straying on to the wrong side of the road. This was the cause of two of the fatalities;

road lighting at Port Road and Malpas Road junctions;

new signage and line marking;

drainage and service relocation;

realignment of the overtaking lane near the Malpas Road T-junction. This will reduce rear-end collisions between vehicles overtaking and those slowing to turn right;

partial closure of Old Coach Road to allow left only turns; and

speed limit reductions between Seaford Heights and Aldinga, from 100 km/h to 90 km/h, and between Little Road and Hart Road, from 80 km/h to 70 km/h.

The committee has concerns that the changing speed limits may be confusing to motorists with at least three different speed limits on this short, three-kilometre section of road. The committee has requested that DPTI review the changing speed limits and report back to the committee in due course.

Construction works are due to commence shortly, with completion in mid-2017. This is a very worthy project that certainly will address some very serious issues in that particular stretch of road. With that, I would like to thank my fellow committee members, particularly those sitting opposite: the member for Chaffey, the member for Finniss, the member for Torrens and the member for Colton and I would also like to thank the committee staff for their work. Given this, and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public works.

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (11:47): This project is on a major road that leads into my electorate and the town of Sellicks Beach, so I took a great deal of interest in the project when it came before the committee. Once again, I thank the DPTI officers. I suggested that a briefing to the Sellicks Area Residents Association be put in place. That has taken place. I did not attend that night, but my understanding is that it went well. What concerned me is that people need to have an understanding as to what is going to happen, they need to know what restrictions are going to be in place during the project and they need to know what the outcome is going to be afterwards regarding roundabouts, etc.

One of the main concerns, and other members of the committee picked up on this at the time, was the great number of varying speed limits. We sought some more information on that. That section of road is heavily used. The number of people who now commute regularly—from my area particularly of Yankalilla—to Adelaide is growing and continues to grow. Indeed, I have one staff member who comes up from Yankalilla when the house is sitting—they are not here today, I might add. So, this road is heavily used and is also the main conduit. As was pointed out by one member of the committee, the majority of ferry traffic is heading down to Cape Jervois. We need answers on it. A section of that road is particularly bumpy and wavy. In the long term something will have to be done with that.

My view is that, given the accident ratios that were given to the committee and the feedback we had from questions asked of the officers, I believe this project is well and truly justified. I am not into restricting speeds. I think this nanny state nonsense on speed limits has gone too far, but down there, where they are proposing to make these alterations to speed limits, it will probably work reasonably well.

In reference to the speed limits, I drove to Darwin and back during the break with my wife to visit family. The roads in the Territory are far superior to our roads; the verges of the roads are so much wider that you can see what is happening. When I discussed this recently with a couple of worthy people from South Australia, they correctly pointed out that the Northern Territory does not have a native vegetation act and they put people's lives and road safety first and not vegetation on the side of the roads. I thought that was a really important point.

Having said that, I digress somewhat from the report, but I will talk about that at another time—I may talk about it later today. It is a good project, and I look forward to its completion. No doubt there will be plenty of grumbles during construction.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (11:51): I, too, will make a small contribution on the 549^th report of the upgrade of South Road between Old Coach Road and Malpas Road at Aldinga. That is a notorious stretch of road. Over time, there have been 50 recorded casualty crashes on that section of Main South Road. Sadly, there have been three fatal and five serious accidents over a stretch of time between 2005 and 2014.

What we will see down there is that the 17,900 vehicles that use that road daily—not just passenger vehicles, it is also a major freight route—will see the benefits once this project is finished. One point I would raise, as other members have, is that it is about the hotbed of speed restrictions down there, the continual change. There are three speed zones there and that will confuse motorists. I think it will be a hotbed of speed camera zones that will see a bit of a revenue-raising exercise. We are constantly under pressure to keep to our speed limits. When you see the up and down speed limit zones, it creates confusion and a lot of uncertainty.

We asked that DPTI review that part of the project and give more consideration to a consistent speed zone area. With the casualties that have happened on that road, with the amount of traffic we see on that road, the growing number of vehicles using it every day, it will be a welcome upgrade, so I commend the report to the house.

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (11:53): I thank the members for Finniss and Chaffey for their contributions on this particular project that the Public Works Committee looked at in great depth. Certainly, we all share the concerns. We know that this section of road needs to be addressed, and we do share the concerns over the varying speed limits. We will continue to monitor how this project pans out. With that, I recommend the report to the house.

Motion carried.