Road Funding

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Can the minister advise the house when appropriate funds will be put into the Victor Harbor-Adelaide main road from the Cut Hill section from Crows Nest Road down to Hindmarsh Tiers Road? That is the worst part of the road.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:00): I thank the member for Finniss for his question. It's a good question because, as I referred to in one of my earlier answers, quite a bit of work has been put into the Adelaide to Victor Harbor Road and that has tended to be—not exclusively, but it has tended to be—between Mount Compass and the southern suburbs of Adelaide, although there is an overtaking lane just south of Mount Compass.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Well, I haven't got my map in front of me. My understanding is that the area he refers to is farther south than that last overtaking lane south of Mount Compass. He is right that that is an area that still needs to be addressed. We mentioned when we made the announcement on budget day that we would be working with the landowners and the councils in that part of the Fleurieu Peninsula to try to work out what the right place is for an overtaking lane.

It has been a commitment from the member for Mawson but also from me, as Minister for Transport, that we will look to put in one of these overtaking lanes, depending on where exactly it goes and we will provide the funding for that. I can't be too specific about the actual location, and hence the design and hence the cost of it, but we have a reasonable idea of what these overtaking lanes go for. It's just a question of whether we are able to derive an engineering solution to install an overtaking lanes in what is, as I think the member for Finniss was alluding to in his question, a pretty tricky area of road.

It is not just because of the road itself—and it does get quite curvy in sections—but also because of the surrounding terrain. When I do travel in that part of the Fleurieu Peninsula, I admit that I tend to take the Goolwa turn-off before heading farther south onto that part of the Victor Harbor Road, but my recollection is that parts there are quite difficult to do road improvements on, but not impossible and we will seek to do those road improvements once we have those discussions. We would hope to deliver that work in concert with the planning and design work for the Main South Road upgrade, so that we can get some improved safety outcomes.

Just as there has been a significant drop-off in the number of crashes—let alone the number of casualties, let alone fatalities—that have occurred on that Adelaide to Victor Harbor road because of those works that have been done from that overtaking lane just south of Mount Compass back towards McLaren Vale, etc., we would hope that to the extent that we are still seeing some crashes and problems on the Victor Harbor Road, by installing a further overtaking lane in that section if we can address the part of the road that is causing motorists to be at greater risk on that road, hopefully we can push that trend rate down of further crashes and casualties in that part of the Fleurieu Peninsula.