MacKillop Electorate Road Survey

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:23): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister advise if the iPAVe3 road survey across the MacKillop electorate was completed successfully and, if so, will the results be made public? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: The intelligent iPAVe assessment vehicle was supposed to spend three weeks assessing the quality of major roads in the South-East. It is my understanding that the vehicle broke down and was taken back to Queensland prior to it finishing its survey.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:23): I thank the member for his question. To clear something up, the vehicle was not relocated to Queensland because it broke down. So I think we can just clear that part up first.

We have contracted the National Transport Research Organisation to undertake sealed road network surveys of approximately 13,000 kilometres, to test pavement deflection with this state-of-the-art preventative assessment vehicle, iPAVe, for an approximate cost of $2.2 million. It is an excellent investment, and I congratulate the previous minister on this initiative. He is someone who cares just as passionately as the rest of the crossbench about regional roads, and it is a great legacy that he has left regional communities with this work.

This vehicle enables the department to collect networkwide deflection data for the first time in our state's history. This data will enable our department to access pavement strength and improve the prioritisation of maintenance activities. As the member for Giles knows, nothing is more important than maintaining regional roads, especially in our industrial cities. In our industrial cities the arteries of those industrial cities are our road network. It is important that we keep these operational.

I can report that the majority of the road network in MacKillop was complete prior to the redeployment of this vehicle back to Queensland. The raw data from the full network survey will be completed in early 2025. It is a large network, with a lot of network to cover. The department undertakes robust data validation and quality checking to give confidence in the data accuracy before it is utilised in asset management and, importantly, decision-making. The advocacy of regional members here is going to be very, very vital because now we will be able to allocate funds on a needs basis, backed up with data, backed up with road assessment and backed up with the impact it is having on local communities, which is what members of parliament will provide.

I am very, very confident that the iPAVe program is working well. I do want to dispel the myth that it was returned because the vehicle broke down. That is simply not the case. I understand that there are some members who have mocked iPAVe. I think this is a good initiative, and I think it is an initiative that the state should be proud of. I want to thank the member for Stuart for the work that he did in making sure that iPAVe was deployed here in South Australia as part of the Malinauskas Labor government's commitment to regional roads.