South Road Intersection

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall government is building South Australia and delivering its commitment to fix the Candy Road, Lander Road and Main South Road intersection?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:34): Mr Speaker, if you head a little bit—

Mr Odenwalder interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Elizabeth is warned for a second and final time.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: If you head south—a little bit further south than the Darlington interchange and Flinders Link projects—you will head down to an intersection: South Road, Lander Road and Candy Road. It's an intersection that was shut off from through traffic decades ago, as South Road at that time was the major thoroughfare for traffic heading up and down South Road.

Since the advent of the Southern Expressway, this section of South Road has seen a significant reduction in traffic; in fact, we have seen the halving of traffic on that section of road, down to somewhere just north of 20,000 vehicles a day. What we know is there's a significant issue in and around some of the backstreets, especially on the Candy Road side, with, essentially, rat running occurring through backstreets in that area as people, not being able to use this intersection, attempt to get around South Road.

At the election, we took a commitment to the people of South Australia, on behalf of the member for Davenport (then candidate for Davenport) but also the member for Black, to fix this intersection to essentially open this part of the southern suburbs to people getting both sides of South Road. We are delivering on that commitment: $5.2 million that was there in the 2018-19 budget to get on and deliver this project.

I had the good fortune last Friday to go with the member for Davenport and inspect the intersection and essentially see firsthand what's going to be undertaken there. Essentially, we are returning this intersection to what it would have been decades ago. Now that the traffic has moved over to the Southern Expressway, we can bring it back to what its original intention was: the opportunity to give relief to local residents who see undue amounts of traffic go through their backstreets. People who are seeking to otherwise find alternative ways to get around this intersection will now be able to use this intersection and leave those poor residents alone.

Later this year, we will see the first service relocation work start. There's one electricity pole on the southern side of the intersection that will need to be relocated, and then the works will begin in earnest next year and be completed over the course of next year. This project is being completed internally by field services. We had the good fortune to meet the people on site who are actually going to be project managing and looking after this intersection.

Certainly, I think the opportunity for those people who live on both sides of that road to actually be reconnected with each other after decades of being separated by this closed intersection is extremely important, as is the opportunity to be able to connect residents with local services. Essentially, if you happen to be on one side of South Road and want to get to services on the other side, it is an extremely difficult task.

This is just another example of us investing in reducing traffic congestion in the southern suburbs. Whether that be the Flinders Link project, whether that be getting on and completing the Darlington interchange, or whether that be upgrading the Candy Road and Lander Road intersection, we have committed to delivering for the people of the southern suburbs, especially in the member for Davenport's electorate. This forms part of a $12 billion plan that we have to upgrade infrastructure right across our state.

Can I say that this is delivering on a commitment as a result of great advocacy by the member for Davenport. He has been a staunch proponent of this project, and I am very excited that we are now getting on and delivering on yet another election commitment that we made to the people of South Australia.

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Ramsay is warned for a second and final time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!