Adelaide Hills Transport Infrastructure

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN (Kavel) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister provide an update to my community on the duplication of the Adelaide Road bridge, the upgrades to the Mount Barker freeway interchange and related works?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:45): I can, sir. This is something that the member has shown a long interest in and lobbied very, very hard for. As he is aware, the South Australian and Australian governments have jointly committed $150 million on an 80:20 basis towards the interchange upgrades in 2024-25 in the federal and state budgets. The house might remember this project was put on pause. The intervention of the member for Kavel was critical in raising the awareness of the commonwealth government of the importance of this to the local community. I want to thank him for his steadfast support for his local community in fighting for this.

They are important questions and important projects that will create a better connection between the Adelaide Hills and the South Eastern Freeway, supporting population growth in the area. It highlights the population growth in the area. The Mount Barker interchange will require a new three-lane bridge across the South Eastern Freeway for northbound traffic and the conversion of the existing bridge to accommodate lanes that are southbound. This gives us redundancy in times of bushfire, something that the member was calling for. He raised a very real concern that his constituents could very well be trapped if anything occurred on that bridge. Now we have got redundancy in place, which is good for emergency services and for the ability to get to the South Eastern freeway if necessary.

The existing Verdun interchange will be upgraded to a full interchange, allowing access to and from the South Eastern Freeway in all directions, with the construction of a new entry-exit ramp for traffic travelling between Verdun and Mount Barker, Murray Bridge and beyond, again in no short part due to the advocacy of the local member, the member for Kavel. Contract awards for both interchanges were announced in 20 June 2025. The Mount Barker interchange upgrade was awarded to Bardavcol, a good South Australian company, employing South Australians, doing an excellent job for us. The joint venture between BMD and Leed was successful in the Verdun interchange upgrade.

I suspect the member's noticed that works have commenced, and no doubt there are lots of questions being asked of him. My department will liaise with his electorate office to make sure that we can offer answers very, very quickly to his constituents about concerns that they have about the works that are being done, service relocation and the like. I am happy to coordinate that with the member. Construction on both interchange upgrades is expected to commence in late 2025, with both interchanges expected to be open to traffic by the second half of 2027.

Whether it's the work we are doing in the Adelaide Hills on the South Eastern Freeway, the tunnels project, the north-south corridor, Majors Road, what you are seeing across all of South Australia is a major investment in infrastructure that had been left untended, uninvested by the previous government. What we are doing is getting on building that trunk infrastructure, whether it's water, sewerage, power or roads.

We are doing it because we want to build South Australia and give South Australians a city that they deserve, homes for their children, to make sure we can get to and from work, maintain that reputation as a city where you can still drive but have excellent public transport offerings. We are doing our very best to roll out a massive infrastructure program over the next four years, more than any other government in the history of South Australia, and we are proud to have done it.