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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-05 Daily Xml
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Road Maintenance

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is creating jobs and keeping South Australia moving through the delivery of the state's single biggest injection of funding into roadwork maintenance?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:30): I thank the member for the question. I know she is very passionate about improving roads in her local community and, in fact, right across the state. This is another great opportunity for me to talk about the $16.7 billion infrastructure spend we have across South Australia—

Mr Whetstone: How much?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: The member for Chaffey asked me how much: it's $16.7 billion, a significant investment, bigger than this state has ever seen, over the next four years, and we are very proud of that. Of course, this does dovetail with the fact that we were left with a $750 million road maintenance backlog from those opposite, so there is work to do.

That's why in the last budget we invested $100 million into road maintenance across South Australia, in the city and in the regions as well. Partnered with the federal government, that is a spend of $268 million on some really important road safety and maintenance projects. As part of this $100 million allocation, there are a number of metropolitan roads that we have been improving: Port Road, Fullarton Road, Marion Road, Greenhill Road and Anzac Highway, just to name a few.

The Marshall government is spending $7.6 billion on roads and public transport infrastructure over the next four years, with more than $1 billion to fix key regional roads, including the Eyre Highway, the Augusta Highway, the Princes Highway, the Sturt Highway, the Barrier Highway—and there are more as well. There will be more than $700 million on key metropolitan intersections to bust congestion, and allow families to get home and spend more time with their families, and to reduce travel times and improve safety as well.

This record investment is not only to futureproof South Australian roads but it is also to stimulate the economy and generate jobs—thousands and thousands of jobs—which we really appreciate. I know that every time I go out and see the people out there in the field working on these projects they are over the moon about the jobs we are creating.

With this quantum of infrastructure spend, of course there is the big end and the small end as well. If you can believe it, we have created jobs in the traffic management area, and I know they have been working very closely with the Minister for Skills as well in terms of upskilling people in this space. This is an important industry because, with that $16.7 billion of infrastructure spend, that is a lot of projects, and we want to keep people safe, especially on the roadside.

Pedestrians and roadworkers need to stay safe during these works, and during these roadworks we also have lane closures and speed signs going out to manage the risks inherent in roadworks—but we also want to keep traffic flowing. It is a complex blend, but these people do an outstanding job in this area. We want to avoid delays at every turn and make sure that our temporary road management signs are not left out unnecessarily. We made this commitment because we have so much work on the go.

All roads under the care and control of the highways commissioner—unfortunately, this doesn't apply to local council roads—state government roads, have new regulations that they have to follow. This has been in operation since 5 April to help industry stay safe on these sites. These regulations came into place, and originally there was a fine of between $20,000 for a first offence and $50,000 for a subsequent, second offence. We worked with industry and put in place an expiation system, which was greatly appreciated.

The traffic control people who are out there doing this wonderful work can't leave these signs out when there are no roadworks happening. We made that really clear. However, we do have to be aware that sometimes there is bitumen that is being bedded down or steel plates you cannot see, so we ask people to take care in and around these traffic works.

The Traffic Management Association and the RAA applauded these new regulations, and it has also been great for the freight industry. The South Australian Freight Council gave some very, very positive feedback on this. So we are going to get on, deliver those roadworks; we know that it will create inconvenience. We are doing everything we can to reduce that inconvenience. If you have any issues you would like to follow up, contact the Traffic Management Centre. But we are continuing to build what matters for South Australia.

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