Public Works Committee: Truro Bypass

Adjourned debate on motion of Mr Brown:

That the 19^th report of the committee, entitled Truro Bypass Project, be noted.

(Continued from 4 May 2023.)

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:11): I rise to speak on this parliamentary Public Works Committee consideration being sought for the Truro bypass project. I would like to think this is more of a project about the appropriate freight route around Truro because it is a significant part of our freight network, with up to 700 heavy vehicles a day going through Truro. This is part of a $202 million project set up by the former Liberal government's 2021 budget.

It is a very significant proposal for the Sturt Highway. I think it encompasses somewhere around a 14-kilometre section around Accommodation Hill. Most people who live in the state would have travelled up the Sturt Highway, and Accommodation Hill is a fair haul for trucks. When you think of the old days, when we only had trucks with about 300 horsepower, it would have been quite a struggle with a big load. I note that into the future this freight bypass will open up to triple road trains and now we certainly have trucks that are closer to 700 horsepower to take these loads.

This freight route is very important in a range of ways, not just for getting freight out to the Riverland from areas such as Port Adelaide, where you can now pull double road trains and B-doubles straight out of there, but also for a lot of the freight tasks that otherwise may come down the South Eastern Freeway. Acknowledging that we do have a freight route coming into Adelaide down the South Eastern Freeway and down Portrush Road, it is good to see that those combinations bigger than B-doubles have to come around the northern freight bypass, through Murray Bridge, up to Mannum, up to Sedan, then to a place called Halfway House on the Sturt Highway and then into Adelaide.

It is a significant detour; I think it is something like 90 kilometres. Where we get the productivity increase in this bypass is with companies like Collins and others that are pulling those bigger combinations, whether they are double road trains or B-triples. There are certainly some companies pulling B-quads. Then you see the big combinations, the AB-double, which is essentially a semitrailer and a B-double, so essentially 2½ trailers. This certainly increases the productivity that is so necessary as we move forward.

Freight operators are not unlike anyone else: looking for workers, looking for staff, making sure we can get that vital freight transported not just around the state but through the state. A lot of our freight is developed internally, whether it is those small loads for the local freight network for simple household needs ranging from foodstuffs to furniture to machine parts, etc., or those necessary items that have to come from interstate.

Truro is on the Sturt Highway, which is the main freight link through to the Riverland and then through to Sydney. It is also a vital part of that freight link for those heavy combinations coming out of Melbourne and bypassing the Hills. They can head in once they get up there near Gawler on the flat run in to Port Adelaide.

We have seen a lot of road networks upgraded north of Adelaide. Talking to some of my mayors out in the South-East and east of the state, it is time we had a lot of roadworks done east and south-east of Adelaide. One of the things that is dear to my heart is the duplication of roads—the Dukes Highway, which I live on at Coomandook, and obviously the Sturt Highway. It is interesting to note that in this $202 million project there will be a single-lane freight route each way. It would have been nice to see the opportunity for more duplication.

I do find it a bit frustrating, as I did quite a few years ago earlier in my parliamentary career when I spoke to the Public Works Committee about a $100 million project for the Dukes Highway, which was essentially a lot of overtaking lanes. The 1,200-millimetre lane down the middle of the road certainly makes it safer but, as I indicated to the Public Works Committee at the time, it would have been more appropriate to put that money into extra duplication for the Dukes Highway. It is certainly better, I will grant that, but the Dukes is a very significant freight route, as is the Sturt Highway.

Looking at what is happening with the Augusta Highway I do get a bit frustrated. We did great work as a government putting in the works—the bridge works project and the bypass project at Port Wakefield—to make it safer for people accessing Yorke Peninsula. There are duplication works that were commenced under our government, the Marshall Liberal government, but that is only programmed to go through to Lochiel. Sadly, we see that with the Augusta Highway, yes, they are getting overtaking lanes and, yes, they are a reasonable option, but I still say they are a B-class option compared with what could be the A-grade solution for making sure that we can get freight to where it needs to be.

As it is now, up that highway you can take two-trailer road trains to Port Augusta and then you can hook up the third to go through to Alice Springs and Darwin. As we are already seeing with the planning around this freight route at Truro, we are looking at the expansion of the ability to put triple road trains on this road. That is certainly a positive because, as I said, it is harder and harder to get truck operators and drivers in the seat, and it is a lot better to carry these heavier loads.

We have certainly proven that we do take a reasonable amount of traffic. In fact, when travelling down the South Eastern Freeway (and up it, obviously), I notice there is a lot less freight coming down there than used to be. Roadworks like this at Truro will make that significantly better. Truro has a very nice main street, but it is pretty tight, and if we can get this freight route in place it will make it better for everyone. I certainly support these works and the sooner the better.

I think there is an opportunity that has been missed in that it is not two lanes each way. But it certainly will be a major improvement in the freight work that needs to be done in this state and not just on the Sturt Highway because it does benefit multiple routes, as I said, whether it is out on the Sturt Highway or hooking around back through Mannum into Murray Bridge so that those trucks that are heading to Melbourne with those bigger combinations can go that way. I commend the works, and the sooner they are done the better.

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (11:20): I rise to speak in support of this project. This is a project that is not just critically important for the productivity of our state, as has been pointed out by a number of people on this side of the chamber, but it is also a project that is of critical importance to our region, the region of the Barossa Valley.

I would like to put on the record a number of the concerns that my local community have raised about the Truro freight route. It is important that we are deliberately referring to it as the Truro freight route because, if you skim through all the budget papers and all the departmental material and what people in the city are liking to call it, they would like to have this project referred to as the Truro bypass.

You can understand that this is somewhat offensive to a local community because they, of course, do not want this piece of infrastructure to be a bypass from their town. They acknowledge that this is going to be critical for productivity, but when you distil it down to the main objective of this $202 million project, it is actually about getting the heavy vehicles off the main street. At the moment, we know that there are around 4,500 vehicles that pass through the main street of Truro, Moorundie Street, in my electorate, and 30 per cent of those are heavy vehicles.

The Truro freight route is designed specifically to get that 30 per cent off their main street, out of their towns, out of their businesses and onto the freight route. There is no doubt that locals would like to see them off the main street. They do not, of course, want that for the wonderful tourists who spend so much money in their local businesses at the various cafes and bakeries in the main street of Truro. They still want to encourage those people to come to the town. That is why changing the name is so critical. It is something that I have raised directly with the minister and also at the Public Works Committee, so I am really hoping that we can start to see some positive traction in that direction.

One of the other concerns that my community have raised with me via the Truro town association is what it means and what it looks like when you are coming from Nuri heading to the Riverland. How are you going to access the town? One thing that was originally floated by the local community was the consideration of an underpass. That is obviously going to be a significant expense, so the other alternative that we have discussed is just making sure that very clearly there is some signage that points to all of the fantastic things that you can do in the local community and it is obviously safe to do so.

You can imagine, particularly around the busy times of Easter, Christmas and school holidays, there is so much traffic going back and forth. We need to ensure that there is a long enough run-up so that people can safely turn right across traffic into Truro. I am hopeful that, again, we can start to see some positive traction with that signage.

One of the other concerns—this is one that farmers have raised with me, and as a farm girl myself I can absolutely understand the concerns that I am just about to outline—is how are you possibly going to get mobs of sheep across a highway where you have all of these road trains doing 110 clicks right along the highway? How are you going to get heavy machinery from one side of your property to the next? That is something that I think must be addressed.

I am pleased that we are starting to again see some positive traction there in terms of having some stock routes underneath the freight route. That is positive, and I am genuinely hopeful that the community will be listened to there. Of course, having all these concerns addressed hinges on the project going ahead, and at the moment there is a big red flag that has been waved by the federal Labor government because they have now embarked on their 90-day infrastructure review.

That means that these productivity region-growing projects like the Truro freight route are essentially in the firing line. They are on the chopping block, which of course would be really disappointing not just for my local community but I think for the entire state. So I have written to the federal minister encouraging her to save the Truro freight route. I have also written to the state minister here in South Australia, and I am hopeful that those calls will be listened to and that the Truro freight route will actually be delivered for the local community. I know that is something that our shadow minister, the member for Hartley, Vincent Tarzia, is also working with me on, and I genuinely appreciate that.

Linked to the $202 million project is another factor that my local area was really excited about. The former Liberal government, as part of this $202 million infrastructure project, put $1 million on the table to have a master plan to help beautify the main street, to help make it something that locals and businesses and the local school could all be really proud of. That is a process that is already underway. We had a planning session with people from right throughout the local community as well as from the Mid Murray Council. It was great to see the mayor present there as well. But a question mark hangs over that, which is something I am really concerned about, again, something that I have raised with the minister.

If the federal Labor government makes the disastrous call to cut the Truro freight route, then I would hate to see locals lose that $1 million to help enhance their town, to redo the main street, which is something else they want to see done. I am hopeful that my community can see this come to fruition, and I am hopeful that the state can have a much better productivity level thanks to the delivery of this project. We will keep fighting, and I will keep fighting for my local community, and I thank the house for the time in addressing this project.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (11:27): I rise also to speak on the Public Works Committee report on the Truro freight route and make a brief contribution because others in this house have spoken about how the Truro freight route is a project that is good in and of itself but I also see it as being good and an important first step in a wider Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass. One of my number one local priorities in the eastern suburbs is getting heavy trucks off our local roads like Portrush Road and Glen Osmond Road.

These are roads that I, like so many, drive down every day, and they are just not appropriate freight routes. They are lined with schools, with nursing homes, with houses, with shops. The fact that Portrush Road is Highway 1 is quite frankly absurd. We need to get trucks off our local roads, and I see the Truro freight route as an important first step in achieving that. Unfortunately, I think we only ever talk about this issue with trucks on our local roads when there is a tragic accident or when there is a shocking collision.

The most recent of those was last year, when we saw an incident at the bottom of the freeway involving a truck and also, I think, about seven cars and a bus; quite frankly, it was miraculous that there were no fatalities out of that accident. We should not have to wait for fatalities, we should not have to wait for another tragedy, before we take action on this issue. Indeed, I think that crash was the fifth major crash at that intersection since 2010, so we very much need to act on this issue urgently.

The Truro freight route is an important step in realising the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass. That is why I was very concerned last week to read about the Truro freight route being in doubt now, thanks to actions from the federal Labor government. It is why I was concerned this week to hear that the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass is in doubt.

In response to questions to the Minister for Infrastructure, who did not commit to the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, he could not even tell us when the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass planning study, which was due to be released in December last year, would be released. We are waiting for that, but I say we cannot afford to wait. Bring on the Truro freight route, bring on the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, and let's get trucks off our local roads like Portrush Road and Glen Osmond Road.

The SPEAKER: I had in mind GlobeLink but, of course, no mention.

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:30): I would like to thank all members for their contributions. Perhaps during my short time as Chair of the Public Works Committee I have not witnessed a report that has been so passionately debated in this chamber, and I hope this is a new trend that we will see for future reports from the Public Works Committee, important as its work is, as you well know, sir.

As I said, I would like to thank everyone for their contributions and would also like to make a note again of the very diligent and bipartisan way that the committee has conducted its work. I would like to thank in particular not only my colleagues, the member for Elder and member for King, but also I would like to thank the member for Schubert and the member for Hartley for the way that they conducted themselves during the committee meetings. I commend the report to the house.

Motion carried.