Investigation launched after multimillion-dollar Hindley St upgrade makes road ‘too slippery’ for cars, speed limit cut

SPECIAL road pavers installed along one of the city’s most popular streets are too slippery for cars despite millions of dollars spent on a major upgrade.

THE speed limit on one of the city’s most popular streets has been slashed to 10km/h because newly-laid pavers, which cost $4 million to install, are too dangerous to drive on when wet.

The Advertiser can reveal traffic speed limits have been indefinitely cut to walking pace along the western end of Hindley St after vehicles failed critical “skid resistant” tests.

An official investigation is underway into the dangerous blunder amid mounting concern the safety of pedestrians and motorists had been placed at risk.

Questions were also raised by the state’s peak motoring body and a leading community group about why the problem was not identified before the multimillion-dollar project opened two months late in June.

Over the past few weeks, the council has received complaints from drivers who had experienced “traction problems” when stopping in wet weather.

Despite temporary “slippery” signs being erected and speed limits cut to 25km/h, vehicles and bikes were still found to be losing control. Speeds were then further cut to 10km/h.

A team comprising project engineers and officials from the council, university, and Department of Planning Transport and Infrastructure are investigating.

Officials could not say how long the speed restrictions would be in force and it remained unclear how much the blunder will cost taxpayers.

The Hindley Street Activation project was billed as delivering an “attractive, safe and pedestrian-focused streetscape” between Liverpool and Register Streets running alongside the University of South Australia’s City West campus.

The project, jointly funded by Adelaide City Council, State Government, UniSA and the Federal Government, aimed to reduce car speeds through wider footpaths, more trees and “high quality and robust” stone pavers.

Council sources said it was unlikely the pavers would be “ripped up”. One solution being investigated was “roughing up” the surface.

But RAA senior road safety manager Charles Mountain said it was concerning the new surface had created such a risk.

“The slippery surface has placed pedestrians and motorists in danger, creating the potential for serious injury,” he said.

“Given the level of planning that goes into road infrastructure projects like this one, it’s certainly an unusual issue to have occurred. Thankfully the problem was identified quickly and is being addressed.”

The West End Association’s outgoing president Andrew Wallace said better checks should have been made.

He said: “Traders had already suffered quite a bit. This really needs to be fixed quickly. We don’t want to have a dangerous pedestrian environment.”

Neil Brown, the council’s general manager of city infrastructure and public works, said officials were “investigating the cause of the problem”. “The new design of the streetscape is intended to slow traffic,” he said.

A UniSA spokeswoman said efforts were being made to “resolve the queries” over the “skid resistance of the pavers”.

“The university will continue to work with all parties to ensure that a speedy resolution is achieved,” she said. A DPTI spokeswoman referred inquiries to council.