Public Works Committee: Main South Road Overtaking Lanes

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (11:32): I move:

That the 117^th report of the committee, entitled Main South Road Overtaking Lanes—Normanville to Cape Jervis, be noted.

Main North Road is an important route for freight, commuter and tourist traffic, connecting Adelaide to destinations on the Fleurieu Peninsula, as well as Kangaroo Island via the ferry terminal at Cape Jervis. Between Normanville and Cape Jervis, overtaking becomes markedly difficult, as traffic must navigate the meandering curves of the undulating terrain.

Between 2019 and 2023, the stretch of road sadly experienced 35 reported crashes, sadly including two fatal accidents and eight more causing serious injury. By installing new overtaking lanes, this project aims to improve traffic flow and increase road safety for all motorists whilst building capacity for anticipated future traffic growth along Main South Road. The proposed works will build:

a northbound overtaking lane between Normanville and Second Valley;

a southbound overtaking lane between Second Valley and Delamere; and

a northbound overtaking lane between Delamere and Cape Jervis.

The works will include upgrades to drainage; new pavement construction and road servicing; new safety barriers; new line marking, including audio tactile line marking where required; and the removal and replanting of vegetation.

The Department for Infrastructure and Transport, referred to here as the department, anticipates the works will impact existing services at each of the three locations, requiring the relocation of underground Telstra services present on both sides of Main North Road between Normanville and Second Valley, as well as between Second Valley and Delamere. The site between Delamere and Cape Jervis will require the relocation of an SA Power Networks pole currently located on the northern side of the road. The department will undertake early engagement with the relevant suppliers in advance of the main construction works to minimise potential interruptions and delays.

The Australian and South Australian governments announced in the 2024-25 federal and state budgets a joint commitment of $31.8 million towards the project on a fifty-fifty basis. The department expects ongoing costs for maintenance of the overtaking lanes to be sourced from its annual operating budget.

Main South Road is under the care, control and management of the Commissioner of Highways, and preliminary designs determined that five properties will need to be partially acquired. Consultation with the affected property owners is in progress and specific details will be determined as part of the detailed design phase of the project. All acquisition will be undertaken in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act and any impact to properties will be minimised where practicably possible.

The overtaking lanes will be delivered through a construct-only contract and construction services will be procured through a competitive tender process. All procurement will be undertaken in accordance with the state government's procurement management framework and will comply with the South Australian government procurement guidelines.

The department will be responsible for project management in accordance with its program and project management framework and guidelines as well as its contract management procedures. Construction is anticipated to commence this quarter, with the aim to be complete and operational in early 2027. Over the life of its construction period, the project is anticipated to support approximately 115 full-time equivalent jobs. The project team undertakes ongoing risk management and has identified the following risks and mitigation strategies:

community concerns, for which management has developed a stakeholder engagement plan and will remain in ongoing communication and engagement with stakeholders;

delays in obtaining statutory approvals, where the department wants to take early engagement with relevant authorities;

impacts on the road network, on which the department will work with local council to implement measures to reduce impact on motorists and local traffic; and

delayed land acquisition, where the department has undertaken early engagement with affected landowners.

The department has prepared a sustainability report, endorsed by the Department for Environment and Water, outlining sustainability objectives, principles and opportunities for the project. The report includes consideration of greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, green infrastructure, water, noise, air quality and contamination. Initiatives include consideration of carbon-neutral, recycled and durable materials; air quality mitigation measures, including dust control; and construction protocols to prevent potential contamination.

The selected contractor will also be required to develop and implement an environmental management plan addressing key environmental and heritage aspects of the project. The works will require the removal of some vegetation and approvals are being sought in accordance with the department's Vegetation Impact Assessment Guidelines and relevant legislative processes, with the removal of vegetation minimised wherever possible.

The Register of Aboriginal Sites and Objects identified no registered or reported Aboriginal sites, objects or remains within the project area. A risk assessment indicates a low risk of encountering unrecorded Aboriginal heritage, and discovery protocols will be utilised should a discovery be made. The overtaking lane between Delamere and Cape Jervis lies within the Ngarrindjeri and Others Native Title Claim Area but the department states that native title has been extinguished on the affected parcels of land. Currently, there are no native title claims, determinations or implications over the remaining project areas. The project will not have any direct impact on commonwealth, state or local state heritage-listed places.

The department has prepared a community and stakeholder management plan, providing an overview of communication strategies to ensure relevant stakeholders, local residents, property owners and businesses are consulted. This includes the District Council of Yankalilla, traditional owners, industry bodies and relevant utility service providers. The department has also consulted with relevant government departments, agencies and representatives.

The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to the Main South Road overtaking lanes, Normanville to Cape Jervis. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were Andrew Excell, Executive Director, Transport Strategy and Planning, Department for Infrastructure and Transport; Michael Rander, Delivery Manager, Department for Infrastructure and Transport; and Amanda Collins, Director, Engagement, Department for Infrastructure and Transport. I thank the witnesses for their time. I would also like to thank the Speaker, who is currently sitting on the floor of the parliament, for providing a written submission regarding this project in his electorate.

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.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (11:38): I rise to support this project, one that had its genesis back when the Labor Party was in opposition and looking for good ideas in local electorates. It was one that I put forward to the then Leader of the Opposition, Peter Malinauskas, and the shadow treasurer, Stephen Mullighan, and the shadow transport minister, Tom Koutsantonis. I want to begin by thanking those three people who, right from the very start, got on board with this as a really important project for road safety in our local area.

Main South Road is a road used by, obviously, many locals but also a lot of visitors who come to South Australia to go and explore Kangaroo Island and also to have a look around the wonderful Fleurieu Peninsula. Unfortunately, the road is narrow and winding and there are very few places along that stretch of road where overtaking is possible, so we went with a promise to put in three overtaking lanes between Myponga and Cape Jervis.

The study was done once Labor got into government. The department went to have a look at the places where they could do these overtaking lanes, and all three of them have ended up being between Normanville and Cape Jervis. The one that is most obvious is when people come off the ferry and head up Cape Hill: if you get stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle you are going to be stuck behind it all the way to Normanville. So that was the one that almost picked itself. Then there are two other overtaking lanes between Delamere and Normanville as well.

In my written submission, I did press the point that an overtaking lane at Wattle Flat—so in between Yankalilla and Myponga—would also be very beneficial for the safety of Main South Road, because we have had a few fatal crashes there and a few near misses as well. So that is an area that the locals would like to see upgraded. I have written to the state government and the federal government about that. I understand that there is not just this big tree full of money that can be divvied out to all sorts of projects, so I am very grateful for these three overtaking lanes that we have got.

I am also very grateful for the work that we put in the 2017-18 state budget, which was to duplicate Main South Road from Seaford to Sellicks. That project is coming along really well. Stage 2 will open up early next year; that is the bit from Aldinga through to the Victory Hotel. I know that Doug Govan is very happy that this road will go with four lanes all the way to his pub, the Victory Hotel. It is named the Victory Hotel, but it was originally called Norman's Victory Hotel because of a victory that Mr Norman, the publican, had when there was a debate over which way the road should go: should it go past his public house or should it go a different way? When the government of the day, 100 years ago, decided that the road would go past his pub, he renamed it Norman's Victory Hotel.

I remember when we had this in the 2017-18 budget and the then Premier Jay Weatherill and the then transport minister Stephen Mullighan came down and did the media announcement. We then went up and had a Victory burger and a few pints at the Victory Hotel to celebrate another victory for the local area, namely, the four lanes of road that by early next year will link Seaford to Sellicks.

We had an important milestone in the past week, and that was the opening of the grade separation that will connect Willunga and Aldinga. That is a really important piece of work, of course. It adds to the one at Port Road and Main South Road, where there was a roundabout that used to cause a fair few line-ups, particularly on long weekends and the like. So we are getting there. It is great infrastructure worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, with those four lanes of uninterrupted traffic going down there and now these three additional overtaking lanes. We are going to make everyone's pathway to Cape Jervis and Kangaroo Island from Adelaide much safer.

Coupled with that, of course we have the new ferries arriving this year as well. They will be drive-on/drive-off, which means no more reversing your vehicles onto the boat, and that is going to make it safer as well. While I am talking about that piece of connectivity for motorists, I want to thank the previous Liberal state and federal governments for the $40 million that they committed to upgrading the roads on Kangaroo Island. It was a very good investment, and getting around the island is now a whole lot easier and safer for locals but also for visitors to that beautiful part of South Australia.

I also want to commend the current Labor government for its injection of extra money into the Kangaroo Island Council coffers to look after their road network. We know that it is a large island, the third-largest island in Australia at 4,500 square kilometres, but it only has 4,500 residents so it is a fairly low rate base when you have to maintain so many hundreds of kilometres of roads. It is the only council area in the state that is subsidised by the state government to maintain those roads.

It was something that Pat Conlon introduced when he was the Minister for Transport when I was his Chief of Staff many moons ago—21 or 22 years ago. That initial money has been paid year on year on year, and the year before last, during a country cabinet trip to Kangaroo Island, it was announced then that that contribution from the state government to the Kangaroo Island Council would, indeed, increase. That has been very much welcomed by the Kangaroo Island Council, which does struggle with their small rate base and large costs.

The motorists of Kangaroo Island also benefited from the Labor government's reversal of a Liberal government decision to take away the 50 per cent discount on registration. It is good to see a bit of credit there for governments of both sides for doing some good things in terms of looking after motorists who live on Kangaroo Island and all those people who visit Kangaroo Island and, of course, the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula that I am lucky enough to represent in this place.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:46): I rise to speak on the motion about the overtaking lanes between Normanville and Cape Jervis. This is welcome work, as the member for Mawson has outlined, certainly linking people towards that vital sea route through to Kangaroo Island. I am sure the Mayor of Kangaroo Island, Michael Pengilly, will be pleased as well.

It is certainly a very windy road. As has already been described, the overtaking lane just out of Cape Jervis will be really handy for people to get going and get out of there instead of having the frustration of being held up. They are only being held up because there is vital freight coming off the island, which could be livestock or other materials, to make sure that the island essentially functions.

Sometimes there is not too much reality in regard to overtaking lanes. I see it on the Dukes Highway where, for whatever reason, the government does not want to take down a small amount of native vegetation in order to have the overtaking lanes in a straight line, because a lot of the time they are built on corners. I see it on the Dukes Highway near where I live at Coomandook, and it just seems a bit ridiculous and it causes confusion. I believe it has caused some fatalities where people are coming around a corner and do not know whether the overtaking lane is finishing or not and it causes a lot of confusion. I think there needs to be some more reality in regard to where these lanes are put for road safety. That is as simple as it gets: for road safety and to save people's lives.

We also see another issue, and the member for Finniss made me very well aware of this, with an overtaking lane that was proposed to be put in on Victor Harbor Road. At the last minute—after a land acquisition process was in place and the fencing had gone in; it was only a few kilometres out of Victor Harbor, to make overtaking lanes I think at five-kilometre intervals along Victor Harbor Road—this one got stopped. It was stopped because a group from Victor Harbor had protested about native vegetation being removed.

Anyone who drives down there—and I certainly drove down there to have a look at it in regard to going down there for various meetings and other things—can see that the trees were planted; they are all in a straight line. That does not happen naturally; it just does not happen. These were planted trees, and it was decided that they could not be removed to put in this vital piece of road safety infrastructure so that we can get everyone to and from Victor Harbor in a safer manner. Sadly, we have seen too many fatalities on that section of road, noting that there is a large retirement population in Victor Harbor.

Not only that, apart from all the other residents who are in the Victor Harbor and surrounding areas, it is the host to schoolies. We certainly want to do all we can to make sure that our young people who wish to celebrate the end of their 12 or 13 years at school can do that in as safe a manner as possible. I am literally appalled that this overtaking lane got taken out of the system right at the last minute after the processes had been gone through with land acquisition and fencing had gone in and then, 'Oh no, we can't do it.' We have to get some more reality into making our roads safer, and I am certainly not talking about broadscale clearing of native vegetation.

What I am talking about is a more realistic approach in how we manage it, and it can also encompass safety with wildlife, especially in these drought conditions when we have more kangaroos heading south. You certainly see them in urban areas now—you see them in Adelaide—and I certainly see them on main roads, right in the middle of Murray Bridge. In fact, one night I hit one. We need to get more reality into the safety of citizens, because we end up with these perverse outcomes where vegetation that is not even native is put above people's lives, and I think that is disgraceful.

Motion carried.