[U/C] M2 North-South Motorway

[rev]

I want to know how Tony Abbott in 2014 made a commitment that South Road Motorway will be finished in 10 years (2024). Then there is no forward planning on it, to ensure it can occur. Knew it was too good to be true at the time.

That was a dinosaur career politician speaking.

Multiple Liberal MP’s used the line in the couple of years after 2014, I guess they stopped using it when it became clear that it was physically impossible to occur.


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It wasnt and isnt physically impossible to finish it in a decade or evebn less..What is impossible is getting past the petty politics of our state and federal politicians so that local communities, the state, and country end up benefiting.

[claybro]

The responsibility for planning the route and construction rests with the state government. Federal governments of BOTH persuasions have been begging to throw money at this for years, via infrastructure Australia, and then various pork barrel excercises. The fact that even the final route or method is still unplanned rests pretty much with the former state government. Let's see if this lot can do any better.

[SBD]

The responsibility for planning the route and construction rests with the state government. Federal governments of BOTH persuasions have been begging to throw money at this for years, via infrastructure Australia, and then various pork barrel excercises. The fact that even the final route or method is still unplanned rests pretty much with the former state government. Let's see if this lot can do any better.

State Labor would not do anything about it as Tom Koutsantonis doesn't want his electorate dug up or disrupted by the excavations. His electorate includes the intersections at Ashwin Parade, Henley Beach Road, Sir Donald Bradman Drive, James Congdon Drive and Richmond Road.

[rev]

The responsibility for planning the route and construction rests with the state government. Federal governments of BOTH persuasions have been begging to throw money at this for years, via infrastructure Australia, and then various pork barrel excercises. The fact that even the final route or method is still unplanned rests pretty much with the former state government. Let's see if this lot can do any better.

State Labor would not do anything about it as Tom Koutsantonis doesn't want his electorate dug up or disrupted by the excavations. His electorate includes the intersections at Ashwin Parade, Henley Beach Road, Sir Donald Bradman Drive, James Congdon Drive and Richmond Road.

T2T and the Superway are both in Labor seats.

[Nort]

The responsibility for planning the route and construction rests with the state government. Federal governments of BOTH persuasions have been begging to throw money at this for years, via infrastructure Australia, and then various pork barrel excercises. The fact that even the final route or method is still unplanned rests pretty much with the former state government. Let's see if this lot can do any better.

State Labor would not do anything about it as Tom Koutsantonis doesn't want his electorate dug up or disrupted by the excavations. His electorate includes the intersections at Ashwin Parade, Henley Beach Road, Sir Donald Bradman Drive, James Congdon Drive and Richmond Road.

It's a pretty wacky conspiracy theory to think that State Labor were all in on building the rest of the North-South route but were planning on leaving this section untouched.

Seems much more likely that it just get left to last as it was the hardest part.

What is interesting now with hindsight is how good a decision is was to do the superway when they did.

[claybro]

What is interesting now with hindsight is how good a decision is was to do the superway when they did.

The Superway was one of those panicked infrastructure decisions as a result of the GFC. It was constructed on the least congested part of South road, along a path of least resistance and over engineered to hell. It was the only possible section to get going quickly, with no prior formal planning. It epitomises the way this whole corridor has been handled, so I'm not sure good decision making really came into it. Having said that, that project alone cemented the eventual route of the N/S motorway, and provided the impetus to get the whole lot going.

[rhino]

IIRC, The Superway was built with Commonwealth money after a commonwealth-funded study was done into what would be most beneficial for the freight task at the time. The State Govt may have had to throw some money at it too, I don't recall, but the Commonwealth money was definitely for that particular project at that time. If it the commonwealth had the North-South Motorway in mind, that came as an afterthought. There was an outcry at the time about the money being spent in the wrong place, because it was not, at the time, the biggest bottleneck, but the Commonwealth Govt said if the money was not spent there, it would not be given. Having it there, now, is convenient, for sure.

[rev]

IIRC, The Superway was built with Commonwealth money after a commonwealth-funded study was done into what would be most beneficial for the freight task at the time. The State Govt may have had to throw some money at it too, I don't recall, but the Commonwealth money was definitely for that particular project at that time. If it the commonwealth had the North-South Motorway in mind, that came as an afterthought. There was an outcry at the time about the money being spent in the wrong place, because it was not, at the time, the biggest bottleneck, but the Commonwealth Govt said if the money was not spent there, it would not be given. Having it there, now, is convenient, for sure.

It was the smoothest flowing section of South Road. Where the T2T trench is now, was probably the worst..it didn't even have a median strip, high voltage power poles on the edge of the road leaning into the road..

[claybro]

There was an outcry at the time about the money being spent in the wrong place, because it was not, at the time, the biggest bottleneck, but the Commonwealth Govt said if the money was not spent there, it would not be given. Having it there, now, is convenient, for sure.

The Commonwealth was desperate for shovel ready major infrastructure projects at the time that would keep looming unemployment down, and could be constructed quickly. As Adelaide had no real "shovel ready" major road projects, this was the only viable option at the time, as it had the least obstacles in the way. No nimbys, no hold out house blocks, no heritage, no outrage...it was the only option. It came out of the blue for the transport industry, who had been agitating for years. That even now we still have no concrete plan for the remaining corridor speaks volumes for politics in SA. Everyone has blamed funding, but even when funding is ready to be made available...no plan to spend it on-still. Perish the thought of an Eastern states cyclone, or earthquake, because the funding that is currently sitting in the never never for this corridor will be snapped up again and sent east, and it will be all SA's fault.

[Bacon]

I'm probably using the wrong term here but i thought of the Superway as a kinda "proof of concept" should other parts of south road go elevated.

[aceman]

the section between the river torrens and anzac highway and from anzac highway to tonsley have basically been relegated to the too hard basket for either side of government. as already mentioned in an earlier post there is no plan for these sections, all talk nothing else. I'm still waiting for the time when they announce exactly how it will be done and how much it will cost. there is no immediate funding from the feds so it will be at least another 5 years before these sections can even think of starting.

[NTRabbit]

It was the smoothest flowing section of South Road. Where the T2T trench is now, was probably the worst..it didn't even have a median strip, high voltage power poles on the edge of the road leaning into the road..

T2T was definitely the worst stretch, but I wouldn't exactly call the South and Grand Junction Rd intersection smooth, it was an absolute mess on heavy freight days despite the expansive size of the intersection, and at times it felt positively dangerous to be on that road in a normal car. Getting caught between three semi trailers with nowhere to go when one tries to pull into your lane over the top of you because he was in the wrong one is stress inducing to say the least. I used to drive to and from Mawson Lakes that way every day some years back, and both sections were deeply unpleasant for different reasons.

[ChillyPhilly]

I'm probably using the wrong term here but i thought of the Superway as a kinda "proof of concept" should other parts of south road go elevated.

Correct - essentially a trial run for the stretch to go through Edwardstown, where land uses are comparable to the Superway stretch.

[Furyan]

Yesterday for the third time in almost as many weeks peak hour traffic was again affected by a burst watermain.

On better news there is now an equal money commitment by both Federal Labor and Liberal on this corridor. This announcement yesterday by Labor was to match the 2.7b promised previously by the Libs.

[aceman]

the issue for me is that there are no costings or final designs put forward for the remaining 'too hard basket' sections.

Darlington should be finished by the end of this year but I wouldn't be surprised if its early next year if we have a really wet winter. northern connector is on track for completion this year (correct me if I'm wrong)

other than a possible start on the pym st to superway section which is relatively small compared to other sections completed so far, this project will basically stop while we discuss how to finish it. the blame game will start and traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction while they repair burst water mains. 183 years after this town was founded south rd in certain parts isn't that much better than the two way track used by horse and carts nearly 200 years ago.