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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-11-06 Daily Xml
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Mitcham Hills Road Upgrade

Mr DULUK (Waite) (13:41): My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house on the government's $16.5 million investment in local roads in my community and, of course, across the state of South Australia?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (13:41): Can I just have clarification on that figure?

Mr DULUK: $16.5 million.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Okay. Sorry.

An honourable member: He has just misled the house.

The SPEAKER: I will be the decider of that.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I would like to thank the member for Waite for his question in this regard and note that I have taken the opportunity to visit the member's electorate with DPTI staff to discuss the best use of that $16½ million in trying to improve traffic issues throughout the Mitcham Hills corridor. I define that corridor as being from all the way down at Fullarton and Cross roads, where all the people who head down Old Belair Road end up—we create some bottlenecks down that end—all the way up to the Blackwood roundabout. I would note that—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: So much for their friendship.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is on two warnings. If he interjects again like that he will be departing the chamber today.

Mr Pederick: He's not necessary.

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is called to order.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: If you want a friend in politics—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is warned. The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: So right through to the Blackwood roundabout. I note that we are taking a pause on the work on the Blackwood roundabout at the moment to make sure that Remembrance Day services can continue to go ahead this year, understanding how important that is, and getting this process right is, in relation to the Blackwood roundabout. This is a difficult corridor to deal with, exacerbated by the fact that we see much development in Craigburn Farm and Coromandel Valley.

I suppose that was planned development that did not have real regard to the traffic management issues that exist in and through Blackwood, which is otherwise a single-lane corridor heading down winding Old Belair Road to get to town. It is quite a difficult stretch of road for us to be able to deal with, but we did have some productive conversations, especially in relation to the James Road intersection and those families who need to head off towards St John's Grammar as well as other parts along Main Road, Blackwood, and a number of the intersections there that create issues.

We also have issues in relation to the Belair train line. What we have seen previously is a number of boom gate operational issues, which create a real fire hazard in and around the Mitcham Hills corridor. We are also undertaking a study to look into bypass opportunities in and around Craigburn Farm, something that, again, potentially should have been dealt with when those tracts of land were rezoned. Having said that, we don't whinge: we just get on and fix the job.

What I look forward to doing is using the existing Blackwood Road Management Plan as a guide to understand where our next work is going to head. There are a number of projects, as I have outlined in a letter to the member for Waite, that are ready on the table that we are discussing. They are the same potential solutions that we also had in the discussions we had when we met on site.

I look forward to being able to step out how we are going to achieve better traffic management through the Mitcham Hills corridor, a part of South Australia unfortunately that was long ignored. But under this government, and especially through the advocacy of the former member for Davenport, it's fantastic that there is a $20 million commitment, $16.5 million still on the table, to be able to improve what is a very busy and difficult part of our road network.

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