Goodwood/Springbank/Daws road intersection black-spot still a dead end, residents say

Despite a plan being signed off to fix traffic snarls at the Goodwood / Springbank / Daws roads intersection, residents are convinced chaos will continue.

Concept images of the federal and state governments’ $35 million Goodwood/Springbank/Daws intersection fix.

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Both sides of federal politics claim they have finally come up with a solution for traffic snarls at the Goodwood/Springbank/Daws road intersection — but residents are less than convinced.

Over the past couple of weeks, federal Labor and Liberal have each pledged funding to fix the trouble-plagued dog-leg — should their party win the next election.

Labor moved first.

Announcing the pledge with Labor’s candidate for South Australia’s most marginal seat, Nadia Clancy, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said federal Labor would work with the State Government to deliver the upgrade on a 50:50 funding basis.

Two days later, federal Urban Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge was in town — alongside Boothby Liberal MP Nicolle Flint — to pledge a $35 million fix to the intersection, long regarded as one of Adelaide’s most dangerous.

Labor’s promise is to realign the current double intersections, replacing them with a single, four-lane intersection, at a cost of $40 million.

The Liberals want to upgrade the existing staggered T-junction with additional lanes.

Either way, the upgrade, which is top of Mitcham Council’s federal election wishlist, has been kicked around as a political football for years.

It has taken U-turns and come up against dead ends.

The Labor proposal of a redesigned intersection of Goodwood, Daws and Springbank roads. Picture: Supplied

Neil Baron, from Panorama Clapham Community Association, said the new Liberal plan had been rushed through as a “kneejerk” response to Labor’s pledge.

He said retaining the dog-leg, but adding extra lanes, just would not work.

“Our feeling is don’t do anything if you’re going to do something stupid like this. It’ll be a waste of money,” Mr Baron said.

“Three months ago, we met with state and Liberal MPs and they told us there were no plans, no budget, no nothing.

Traffic on Goodwood Rd near the intersection of Springbank Rd. Picture: Stephen Laffer

“Now, not only have we got plans but they’ve signed off on it and are already acquiring land.

“It’s so unlike DPTI (the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure) that normally moves at a glacial pace.

“Maybe we should be taking all our four-way intersections and turning them into T-junctions if this plan is best.”

Mr Baron was one of more than 100 people who last week attended a community forum to discuss the intersection upgrade with state Transport Minister Stephan Knoll, state MPs Carolyn Power and Sam Duluk and Ms Flint.

Mr Knoll told the meeting the State Government backed the federal plan, and that land acquisitions had already started.

Mr Baron said his fellow residents’ association members were cynical the federal Liberal plan was just an effort to shore up support for Ms Flint.

“We all know Nicolle’s in a tight spot,” he said.

“We’ve had more than a decade of debate about this — and Labor’s had its chance to do something too — but this is no time to rush something through.”

Ms Flint, who said she was a regular user of the intersection, said she had been working hard to find a solution after “years of empty promises” from the former Labor State Government.

For its part, the Federal Government said its proposal ran rings around Labor’s plan because it was funded, delivered better travel outcomes, involved fewer land acquisitions, less business disruption and, importantly, “will be delivered”.

“Labor had 16 years to deliver this project and it simply wasn’t a priority for them,” Mr Knoll said.

“The 60,000 motorists who use these intersections every day can now breathe a sigh of relief that this upgrade will be in both the upcoming federal and state budgets.”

Construction is planned to start in 2020 and be completed in 2022.

The former Weatherill government announced an intersection upgrade in the 2017/18 state budget but later declared that the project was not publicly announced because of “compulsory acquisition costs”.

The new Marshall Government did not include the project in its first budget, dismaying local residents, and even catching some Liberals offguard.