Truck that ran out of fuel on the freeway highlights big problem about planning in Adelaide Hills

A truck runs out of fuel on the South-Eastern Freeway and just 30cm of protruding trailer causes utter chaos. This is a warning that planning authorities and Hills residents need to heed.

• Huge freeway delays as truck runs out of fuel
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On Thursday morning, just before 8am, a truck ran out of fuel on the downtrack of the South-Eastern Freeway.

It nearly – just nearly – made it into a hillside emergency lane a little before the Bridgewater exit, leaving just 30cm or so of its trailer sticking out into the left-hand lane.

That little bit of truck meant the whole lane was blocked by police, causing huge delays – I was stuck for more than an hour. It was 90 minutes for some people, and I suspect longer for others.

The line of cars and trucks stretched from Mount Barker to Bridgy. A usual eight-minute drive took 90 for some.

Lots of motorists who couldn’t be bothered waiting – or maybe, felt they had no choice – drove down the emergency lane and used the gravel U-turn lane set aside for emergency vehicles to get to the up-track.

(That’s dangerous and reportedly drivers were booked by police.)

Cars use the freeway slip lane designated for emergency vehicles to avoid the delay on the South-Eastern Freeway.

Now, any regular SE Freeway user knows to expect delays.

It’s a common experience, that sinking feeling when, abruptly, a screen of red brake lights appear, the cars in front slow down – hard – and your eyes flick to the rearvision mirror because one day, the guy behind you will be on their phone and maybe it’s today.

Freeway delays aren’t unique. Neither is a really long one.

But back to that little bit of truck. To that 90-odd-minute delay.

It’s a huge problem for people living in and around Mt Barker, not necessarily because of the sheer inconvenience.

Sure, an hour or more delay to start your day is annoying – worse for people heading to medical specialists or catching connecting buses or trains for other can’t-miss appointments.

The question is, what if?

Cars lined up on the South-Eastern Freeway after a truck ran out of fuel. Picture: Sarah Reed

What if it’d been during school pick-up and hundreds of kids had been left waiting for more than an hour?

What if an ambulance – or several – had been trying to get through, and all those impatient cars blocked the emergency lane?

And the big one – what if there’d been a bushfire? Mt Barker’s forecast on Thursday was 36C. There’s a severe fire danger warning for the Mt Lofty Ranges.

If a bushfire emergency was declared – a get-out-if-you’re-not-ready emergency variety – most people would head towards the city, to friends and family in the suburbs, away from dry bushland.

Imagine hundreds of cars, fleeing huge flames, boiling black smoke. The fear. The heat. The falling ash. The utter panic. All of that’s bad enough without half a metre of a truck blocking one of the lanes they need.

Traffic delays on the South-Eastern Freeway after a truck became stranded in the left-hand lane near the Bridgewater exit.

All of this sounds extreme, I know, but bushfires are desperately scary things. It’s what I thought about in crawling traffic for an hour. To live in the Hills is to live with being prepared for a bushfire. Being prepared for how you will one day handle it.

Part of that is hoping to use the freeway, but if it was blocked – where do you go? How do we avoid mass panic?

There’s another element in this. Mt Barker is home to 16,000 people. 20,000 more are expected to move there by 2040. That’s only 20 years away. That’s a lot more people.

It’s not just Mt Barker. Nearby Nairne is planned to grow by 20 per cent. Littlehampton – where sheep still literally graze just off the main street – by 9 per cent. Meadows by 34 per cent.

This area needs infrastructure, desperately. It needs planning. It needs wider roads. Now. It needs a way to cope with the huge amount of people destined to live there.

In July, there were calls for a new train route between Mt Barker and the city. What happened? Is it viable?

What about a freeway exit at Hahndorf on the downtrack instead of just an entry? A entry on the uptrack?

Huge delays on the South-Eastern Freeway in the Adelaide Hills after a truck ran out of fuel.

Yep, there’s Nairne’s new(ish) freeway interchange, which released pressure on Mt Barker’s interchange, although that’s still a notorious bottleneck and locals avoid certain turns at certain parts of the day, as they do parts of Adelaide Rd.

As I sat in traffic, thinking about the ‘what if’ of a bushfire behind us all, I also wondered how you’d add another lane either side, say, between Bridgy and Mt Barker.

There’s big grassy space, in some sections, between the up and down tracks, but not all the way.

Between Stirling and Crafers, they’re turning an emergency lane into a third freeway lane on either side. A third freeway lane for around Mt Barker is worth discussing — we’re going to need it eventually.

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