Public Works Committee: Port Elliot Growth Project

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:24): I move:

That the 68^th report of the committee, entitled Port Elliot Growth Project, be noted.

The South Australian Water Corporation (SA Water) proposes to construct a new water main to support drinking water supply for growth and resilience in Port Elliot and neighbouring towns, including Middleton, Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island. Due to major developments in the area, SA Water's east south-coast water system has experienced strong growth in the number of new water connections over the last 20 years. The township of Port Elliot and its neighbouring towns are projected to continue growing over the next 30 years and, as such, SA Water has identified the need to augment the water supply to support this growth.

This project is a high priority for SA Water, to ensure the continued delivery of the regulated standards of water expected by customers. Currently, the system relies on a single water main and, due to its design capacity, there are limitations on the water supply to the townships in the Port Elliot area. Additionally, the system experiences further demand during the summer months due to an increased seasonal population and visitors, as well as the higher temperatures experienced. Future constraints on the system are expected, based on the projected population growth throughout the area.

The reliance of the system upon a single transfer main means that, in the event of service disruptions, there is likely to be a severe impact upon customers. Aiming to deliver key SA Water outcomes, the project will provide a safe and reliable water supply, while addressing current supply capacity constraints. This will allow for growth in Port Elliot and its surrounding areas, and improve customer service levels by increasing the overall water pressure and reliability of service. The project proposes to construct 1.5 kilometres of an iron, concrete-lined water main pipe that will run along Waterport Road at Port Elliot between Victor Harbor Road and Port Elliot Road. This will be a duplication of the existing water main pipe and will run parallel along the northern carriageway of Waterport Road.

There will also be an additional 200 metres of water main constructed on Waterport Road to relocate the creek crossing to an accessible depth along the road carriageway, to improve accessibility for maintenance and to address health and safety concerns. This option was determined to be the most cost-effective and productive solution to address the project objectives. It will improve resilience in the system, as a duplicate water main allows redundancy in the event of failure and will provide delivery, operational and maintenance benefits. Construction has commenced, with final completion expected in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The delivery of this project is part of SA Water's Water North Framework program. The procurement process for establishing this framework has been conducted in accordance with SA Water's policies and procedures, conforming to all applicable Treasury and government policies. The project will be managed in accordance with SA Water's Corporate Project Management Methodology by a project manager from SA Water's capital planning and delivery group. The project manager will be responsible for the development and delivery of the overall project, the necessary approvals and management of contractors.

A business risk management policy and framework will apply over the course of the project. This will be undertaken on an ongoing basis to identify and assess risks, ensuring that management or mitigation measures are applied with mitigation strategies put in place for risks already identified. Firstly, environmental risks from construction or operational activities will be mitigated by the pipeline alignment, designed to avoid adverse impacts on native vegetation, native fauna and their habitat.

Secondly, there is a risk that pH residual in the concrete pipe could result in water quality issues, which will be mitigated by appropriate pipe handling procedures being implemented. Lastly, there is a risk of network isolation failures and loss of supply to customers during link-in activities. Detailed shutdown planning, coordination and impact assessments have been designed to minimise the likelihood of interruptions.

SA Water is committed to ensuring that impacts to the environment or heritage items associated with the proposed project are minimised. An environment and heritage expertise team has been involved in the project planning and development phases to provide advice for the alignment and construction methodologies, seeking to reduce adverse environmental impacts. Desktop and fieldwork studies have been undertaken to create an environmental impact assessment on flora and fauna, air and water quality, water and resource use, site contamination; and the social environment, such as access, noise and vibration.

A preliminary environmental management plan has been prepared to ensure that the project complies with the relevant legislation. An environment and heritage expertise team has reviewed the proposed project site and has advised that the project has no European heritage status and does not impact on any heritage items.

This project has been assessed by an Aboriginal heritage adviser, who determined that there is a medium risk of impacting or encountering heritage, as SA Water recognises that any ground-disturbing activity presents a risk of encountering Aboriginal objects or remains. The design and construct contractor will be required to comply with SA Water's standard operating procedure for the discovery of Aboriginal heritage during construction work, in the unlikely event that heritage is uncovered.

If any Aboriginal sites, objects or remains are found, work will cease immediately and an Aboriginal heritage and engagement adviser will be contacted. Native title obligations arising from this project have been reviewed and have been determined to be extinguished, provided that the pipeline alignment remains in the gazetted road reserve. If project works were to impact any land that may be subject to native title, SA Water states that native title holders and registered claimants will be notified.

SA Water affirms that ongoing engagement and consultation will occur throughout the project, with internal stakeholders and partner organisations to be kept informed throughout the project works via progress meetings. A detour is necessary, and communication with the local councils impacted by the works and traffic detours will occur over the course of the project. This will include the discussion and agreement of traffic management with the affected local councils of Alexandrina and the City of Victor Harbor. Consultation will also be ongoing with adjacent landowners to minimise the impact of construction works.

The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to the Port Elliot growth project. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were: Peter Seltsikas, Senior Manager Capital Delivery, SA Water, and Jasmine Rahmanzadeh Kabir, the Project Manager for SA Water. I thank witnesses for their time. Based upon the evidence considered and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (11:31): I rise to very much support this project. It is a very important project in my electorate. It is actually very close to my family in its location. The Basham family have been long-time residents of the Port Elliot area, in particular Waterport Road where this work is going on, so much so that my parents built a house about 20 years ago on the site of an old quarry on the property down there which was used to build Waterport Road. So the soil that is being dug up at this point in time was actually from under where my parents' house is now.

I have a strong connection to this area. We have seen significant change in water management over this area. I think back in the 1980s the water supply actually used to flow in the other direction. Currently, it comes from Myponga Reservoir through to Victor Harbor and flows down Waterport Road to Goolwa. Historically, it used to come out of Goolwa, out of the river, and flow the other way, and so we have seen a change in the way that water flows have gone.

As mentioned in the report, the growth in the area is significant and we are seeing a need for a significant upgrade to occur in this region to meet the needs of that growth. This is a very sensible solution, effectively duplicating the line between the header tanks that exist just off Waterport Road through to Port Elliot, to make sure that there is actually enough flow into the township of Port Elliot, allowing the other pipeline to continue to supply across to Middleton and Goolwa. It is giving a significant amount of extra capacity across that whole area by duplicating this section and removing Port Elliot and giving it its own dedicated pipeline into the township of Port Elliot.

It is a really important piece of infrastructure and I am really pleased that it is going ahead. As was mentioned in the report, that work has commenced. There have been some disruptions that have been quite significant to the community and which led to me engaging directly with the previous minister, the Deputy Premier's office, and now to a new minister responsible, to work through those issues. It was very much about the logistics of road closures and the management of work times to alleviate the pressure on the community.

Effectively, there are about five and a half thousand car movements a day down Waterport Road. They were cut off only during the day while the work was occurring. The initial work program was between 7am and 5pm, which caused enormous congestion in the township of Port Elliot, particularly around school pick-up time at 3.30 in the afternoon. That was a particular problem, but through working with the two ministers' offices over this time, we have seen a great outcome. They have readjusted the work times so they are now knocking off at 2.30 in the afternoon, an hour before school pick-up, which lets that happen uninterrupted, giving a significant improvement to the community down there and stopping the congestion that was occurring.

It was taking over half an hour to get from Port Elliot to Victor Harbor; you can walk faster than that. That is how bad the traffic congestion was getting. So it is pleasing that we have been able to work with SA Water and the government to achieve a much better outcome around the management of traffic. I very much thank the two ministers for the support from their offices and, pleasingly, for engaging now on a fortnightly basis directly with SA Water to make sure we keep things working smoothly.

I am really pleased to have such good working relationships on this project to make sure the community is not overly disadvantaged by those road closures. They have also put on extra crews so that the time line will not be stretched out. Effectively, by digging up in two locations at once, they can speed up the works, which will enable the road closure works to be finished by September as initially forecast. That is also very pleasing that they have been able to find that solution.

As I said, it is a very important piece of infrastructure for the community. Water is such an essential part of the fabric of townships being able to function. It is, as mentioned also in the report, one of those peculiarities of the population growth that occurs during the summer period. It is significant extra demand, and the high water use months are in summer, so it is a huge extra demand from the normal demand at this time of year. It is a challenge for infrastructure to be built to cope with that demand. To me, this is a really sensible solution to achieve a good outcome for those communities. With that, I commend the project.

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:37): I want to take the opportunity to thank the member for Finniss for his contribution. As I have said before in this place, it is always good to hear from local members on their views about particular projects. I know the member for Finniss has certainly let us know what he thinks about things happening in his patch from time to time. I thank him for his contribution and I commend the motion to the house.

Motion carried.