Flinders Link

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister provide an update to the house on the progress of the Flinders Link project?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:26): I thank the member for Davenport for his question. This is a project that he and I have been talking about for a long time because providing that link across Darlington—across South Road—into the Flinders campus is a great way to help encourage more patronage on the Tonsley line for the people in his constituency. As he points out, this is the first time the trains have come to the current Davenport.

This is a very important extension out to Flinders University, given what is going to happen out there and given this government's agenda to grow international student numbers here in South Australia. This is a 650-metre upgrade of track. Yes, it is costing $125 million. It is going to provide a vital connection to the Flinders Medical Centre, Flinders Private, Flinders University and everybody else who doesn't want to cross South Road.

It is a train line that is going to be elevated into the air. It's going to have to go over the top of the Darlington Interchange. As part of it, it is also going to have a full shared access path, so that people can actually use it to cross South Road without having to go down to the surface. It also has a lift in it on the northern side of South Road, so that, again, people can cross the road using the overpass without having to cross some pretty heavy traffic.

We have seen a change in scope to this project. I think we were pretty clear about that when we talked about it on Monday, but I would like to offer the house, and certainly members opposite who were asking questions about the details of why this project has changed in scope, a full account. Essentially, this project changed because what we had before was a very basic design—a basic graphic—to work from, which has now been worked up into a full engineering scope. The decision was taken around upgrading the viaduct structure to a T-based superstructure because of the fact that this structure is going to have take a train that is turning and it's actually a very heavy bit of kit, so we need to make sure that the engineering is strong enough to take that weight and that load.

We also saw upgrades to retaining walls. We saw an upgrade to the lift to make sure that it is fully compliant and accessible and an upgrade to the shared use path. Whilst we were there, it was also identified that there were a number of sleepers on the existing Tonsley line grade that also need to be upgraded, so we are taking the opportunity, while we are undertaking this project, to swap out some of those sleepers.

When it's presented to me, it really does leave a minister and a government with a stark choice of whether or not we spend money to do the project properly in the first place and whether or not we listen to the engineering advice about what is safe. We have seen instances in the past, and the member for Unley has well enunciated what happens when you build a tram overpass on South Road and you get some of the engineering wrong: you see chunks of concrete fall off and potentially fall onto cars. We want to make sure when we undertake this project that we get it right the first time, that it is safe, that it can handle the load that it is going to take and that bits don't fall off it. That is exactly why we have undertaken the project in the way that we have.

This is going to have massive benefits in unlocking the Flinders University campus and connecting it to Adelaide. I really look forward to this being a key part of a broader strategy to see more international students at Flinders University living around campus, living on campus and giving those people a connection to Adelaide. I think this is a great project. It is going to deliver urban congestion busting in the southern suburbs, and I look forward to this project getting on and being completed in the near future.