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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-11-26 Daily Xml
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Regional Road Maintenance

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:23): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. When will the works on Highway 1, between Port Wakefield and Lochiel, be finally complete? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: People who live in towns like Lochiel and around and who use that road regularly have been inconvenienced for literally years and are eager to see the completion of this project.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:23): It's always good to get a question from a regional member who cares about their local community, actually fights for them, asks questions about them in parliament. It is quite rare. So it's good that the crossbench actually care about the communities they represent. As the member is well aware, work is underway on an important upgrade, which has a cost of $260 million, funded in partnership with the Australian government on an 80:20 basis.

This project will provide dual two-lane carriageways, including appropriate intersection treatments between the Augusta Highway intersection with the Copper Coast Highway and Lochiel. Once completed, the duplication of the Augusta Highway between Port Wakefield and Lochiel will result in significant safety improvements for all road users, productivity improvements for freight travelling on the Augusta Highway and reduction in travel times.

I have been advised by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport that the project will be completed in quarter 1 of 2025. I know it has been inconvenient for the member's community. It is the great burden of building infrastructure in regional communities when the roads that are often being built are the only roads people can use. It is becoming increasingly frustrating when people see day in, day out roadworks. Often weather inhibits roadworks, and it increases that frustration for local communities.

What I can try to assure the member is that we are working at pace. We are pushing the contractor to deliver the project and complete it. I know that often communities that have work completed are then often frustrated once the work is completed about speed limit restrictions that remain in place. One of the big frustrations of a lot of regional communities is seeing speed restrictions or traffic restrictions in place when they see no work being undertaken at all.

What I can say to the member is that there are good reasons for all these things that occur, and I ask a bit of patience from those local communities. We are trying to improve the amenity of their freight network and their roads. We are spending vast amounts of treasure on roads that directly impact them. I know the member is a great advocate for local regional roads and has got some good outcomes on Yorke Peninsula. This is one of many that he has fought and advocated for, and there are others that he has done as well.

It is often the case with these infrastructure programs that they are incredibly popular when they are announced, very, very unpopular while they are being built, and then people forget quickly once they are completed what they went through. All I can say is it will be worth the wait. I am happy to meet with local communities and businesses that he may wish me to, to reassure that we are working at pace to get this done.

The frustrating part about roadworks and infrastructure works is they take time—they do take time. Because they take time, often morale gets hit in these local communities, so I do apologise to the member, but the delays are unforeseen. The work is going quickly. We are going as fast as we possibly can. We want a good outcome for his local community. It is an important section of road. They have been long-suffering. The deserve this upgrade. It is coming their way—just a little bit longer.

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