Darlington Upgrade Project

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:17): My question is also to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Can the minister assure the house that the cost of repairs to the two sections of the collapsed roadway of the Darlington project are not currently being funded by the consortium from the $620 million Darlington project budget?

The SPEAKER: There's a fair bit in that. Minister.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Not really, no.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:18): I would never defy your ruling in that way, sir. I have answered this question publicly a whole series of times, after providing the almost daily updates that we have done since this issue first came to light, and that question of cost has been asked. The answer at the moment is that it's too early to say.

We are in a phase at the moment where testing is being undertaken. A whole series of testing is currently being undertaken to get to the point where we can make those decisions about what the fix is going to be at the Darlington interchange. Cone penetrometer testing is being undertaken along the 220-metre section of road in question, between Sturt Road and Flinders Drive. There will also be the same CPT works being undertaken along the other 1,300-metre section of the lower motorway, again, to provide that additional assurance.

We also have piezometer testing being undertaken to look at water table levels in conjunction with SA Water. Again, it is another step we are taking to get to the heart of how it is that this water got behind the shotcrete wall. We also see works starting on site today to scrape back those two sections that have subsided so that we can actually get a physical look at the profile of the soil behind where these issues have occurred, and there will also now be some soil testing undertaken along those sections in the coming days. All of this will happen and unfold over the coming weeks because we are taking—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Who's paying for that?

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens interjects, 'Who's paying for it?' and he is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: We are undertaking a very thorough process. The Aurecon independent experts are there to provide us that pathway. We are essentially doing this testing to give them the assurance that they can sign off that this fix is going to be complete once and for all. We are taking a very cautious approach to that. I know there are those, especially the member for West Torrens, who would love nothing more than to point fingers but, first and foremost, our responsibility is to get this right and to get this fixed and that is what our focus has been.

This is a design-construct contract. This means that, when this project was first put together, back in 2015, 2016 and 2017, the design works were being undertaken by the constructor. Those design works are done by a design house and then go to an independent private company that verifies those designs, and then the department does their own internal drawing checks as well. That work all happened before we came to government. What we then see is the contractor going on to build. There are again verification processes in place at each step of the way that the work is being undertaken.

While I was on site last week, I had the opportunity to meet everybody, so the people from the contract who are undertaking work, and they were doing their own verification checks. There was then the private company that was providing the verification of that work and, then again, departmental staff who were undertaking their own checks. That process has been done all along in building this very complex piece of road.

What we have at the moment is a group of experts from Aurecon who are going step-by-step—back from when this project was first thought of, was first funded and first got underway—and working their way through a methodical process to get back to today and make sure that, at every step of the way, everything has been done correctly.

We will wait for that advice before deciding on the next steps, but South Australians can have every assurance that this government is taking every step necessary to make sure that this issue, which isn't good enough, not only doesn't happen again but that the fix we put in place for these two sections does the job once and for all.