Infrastructure Projects

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (14:28): My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house on how the government is assisting local businesses by fast-tracking infrastructure projects within the government's $1 billion economic stimulus plan in response to coronavirus?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:29): I would like to thank the member for Kavel for that question and note that his electorate has been a beneficiary of this program, of this government's commitment to help improve infrastructure around our state.

When the Premier made the call that we as a government were going to put together a stimulus package very early on in this piece—in fact, before any other jurisdiction in the country—we were keen to look for projects that enabled us to get work out the door very quickly, within a matter of weeks, within a matter of months, so we set about designing a package of works that truncated a lot of things that can sometimes take capital construction projects time to be able to deliver.

We had to make sure that these were projects that didn't have long design time frames, long procurement time frames, land acquisition, community consultation, as well as other big bureaucratic time frames. Essentially, we designed a package of works that can get out of the ground fairly well straightaway. As part of that $350 million package, there was $120 million of road maintenance projects that this government is undertaking. Some 165 jobs are going to be created as a result of this package. It means that we can do more of the work that this government has been doing, and that is helping to fix roads across South Australia, especially in regional South Australia.

In the member for Kavel's electorate, in addition to the $10-odd million worth of resurfacing work that is currently going on on the South Eastern Freeway towards Callington, there is actually now a further $35 million to rehabilitate and resurface the South Eastern Freeway between the tollgate and Crafers. We are also undertaking a midlife replacement of the Heysen Tunnels, some $15 million worth of work, the tender for which has actually already been released.

We've also got $52 million for targeted regional road network repair and improvement along the Stuart Highway, the Yorke Highway, the Dukes and the Riddoch. Without reflecting upon members, I know that those members who are not with us today because of the restrictions on numbers in this place will be very keenly listening to this answer and wanting to know precisely when that work is going to happen in their electorates.

As part of our GlobeLink report there were identified a number of improvements that could be made for the north-south corridor, essentially a freight route that connects Truro with the upper section of the South Eastern Freeway. We are undertaking $12 million worth of work, shoulder sealing and some bridge upgrades, to help improve that road to provide those bypass opportunities for heavy vehicles to go around Adelaide.

What we have also done is put out a $6 million package of work to seal a 28-kilometre section, or thereabouts, of Adventure Way and Innamincka Airport with a capping solution that is something that has been trialled on an ongoing basis over a number of years in outback South Australia. In the member for Stuart's electorate, this is something that is extremely important. This capping solution is one that provides us the opportunity to be able to seal a road but do so with a cost structure that helps to provide most of the benefits of a fully formed sealed road at something like a quarter of the cost.

The great news about that is that we can help to reduce road maintenance requirements on that road and roads that we cap in that same solution across a regional road network. It means, for those days when it does rain—and I think we would like a few more of those days rather than less—when we do see flooding in the outback those rates that are capped can get opened and back underway more quickly. The tender for that project has also already been released.

We are getting on with the job of stimulating our economy, undertaking capital projects that are going to provide productivity improvements into the future and help to provide jobs now. That's precisely what we as a government have been doing and we will continue to do as part of our $1 billion stimulus package.