Ministerial Statement

North-South Corridor Reprofile

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:05): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The 10.5-kilometre Torrens to Darlington (T2D) project is the most significant project ever planned in South Australia. It is an enormous project, and we only have one opportunity to get it right. The Malinauskas Labor government committed to reviewing the current reference design of the project to make sure that it provides the best possible outcomes and minimises community impacts and unnecessary costs to the South Australian taxpayer.

The initial findings of the departmental review have revealed the project is nowhere near as advanced as suggested by the previous government. Some of the more significant matters uncovered so far include:

an overly optimistic and unrealistic project program and spend profile which is not reflective of the actual status of design development, community engagement, utility service relocations and technical investigations, with no recognition of skilled labour and supply chain constraints being experienced nationally—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Did you give leave or not?

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —and:

tender and contract documentation not being sufficiently developed to meet the program procurement; and

inadequate consideration and development of solutions which could achieve the same traffic benefits but impose lesser visual impact on the community, for example, the large overhead structures proposed at the Anzac Highway intersection and adjacent to the Brickworks Marketplace.

Mr Tarzia: Like the ones you built.

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Key items excluded from the project scope include:

restoring the degraded sections of South Road above the tunnels to a fit standard;

upgrades to key feeder routes supplying precast tunnel shells and for hauling excavated materials to allow for increased loading during construction;

capacity upgrades to key intersections away from South Road which will experience traffic increases due to traffic choosing not to travel on South Road during construction; and

upgrades to key intersections and road links necessary to cater for changes to traffic flows once the project is complete.

In June 2021, when the previous government submitted the early enabling works to the parliamentary Public Works Committee, the scheduled award date for the first main works package was advised to be in mid-2023. This would have resulted in major works commencing in late 2023. When the federal government funding was secured and announced in February 2022, a construction commencement date of late 2023 was restated.

The latest update to the project program prior to commencement of the review showed both the award of first major works package and major works commencing six months later than the 2023 date. I am advised that neither the initial nor revised dates were achievable. The work required to have this critical project in a ready-to-go state and the cash flows included in the previous budgets could never have been achieved. As a result, the time line for expenditure on the project needs to be adjusted to meet a more realistic assessment of when the money is likely to be spent. I seek leave to table a document.

The SPEAKER: The minister can table without leave, being a minister.