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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-04-03 Daily Xml
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North-South Corridor

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. When will the remaining 95 per cent of the $2.7 billion, promised by the commonwealth government for the north-south corridor, be delivered?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (15:00): Let's try this again. At the moment, we are delivering—and it will be in construction by the end of the year—the Regency Road to Pym Street section of the north-south corridor ($340-odd million) and we are in tender phase at the moment. What happened was that Labor put $177 million in their 2017-18 budget. They just didn't get any money from the feds. I am sure they could have built half the road, but just not the other half. That's what we did.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: We have now put those four projects, another nine major intersection upgrades, within that 2021 to 2023 time frame. This gives us enough time to get ready for what is going to be the largest infrastructure project this state has ever undertaken—has ever undertaken. We need to get ready because we are still working through the process, doing the business case development work, to understand what is to be built. Depending on which end design we go with will actually dictate what the funding profile needs to look like.

For instance, if we go with the upgrade solution, we can actually stage those works because you can break those projects off into bite-size pieces and you can do them progressively. If we decide, though, to go down one of the tunnelling options—the long tunnelling option, for instance—once you buy one of those tunnel-boring machines, stick it in the ground and it starts digging, it doesn't stop digging. What will happen in that instance is you will actually compress the construction time frame.

If we go down the hybrid tunnel option, obviously we can then stage the middle section of the works with the tunnels at either end and decide what is the best staging of that works. Each one of those different designs has a different construction profile time frame about it. Again, that work will start in earnest in 2022-23. We said it on Monday—in fact, we have been saying it consistently. In fact, I think I actually put the entire fact sheet into The Advertiser two months ago.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: We have been extremely transparent about this the entire way along the corridor. Also, here's the other thing we need to get right. I get a lot of people who write to me and there is a high degree of angst for those people who have businesses and houses along South Road. They have known forever that this project is going to happen, but what they haven't had is certainty over whether or not they are going to be acquired and when. The good thing about extending the lead-in time frame is that it gives us years to have conversations and acquire the properties that we need to.

Firstly, we need to work out which design. That will dictate the time frame of the profile but also dictate which properties need to be acquired. We then can go in a methodical and orderly way—having got $252 million in a bucket that's inside the forward estimates that gives us the money to do this—and not be rushed when having those very sensitive conversations with people and allow businesses the time to plan to relocate, allow residents the time to plan to relocate and do it in a way that is sensitive and respectful for the disruption that is going to be caused during the construction time frame.

We are taking the entirely responsible course of action. We don't apologise for it. We have now built a pipeline that stretches out beyond the horizon, out to 2029-30. We are extremely proud of it. South Australians who live on the north-south corridor or who live in metropolitan and regional South Australia—in fact, everybody who lives in South Australia—are going to be the beneficiaries of it.

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