Consultation to start this month on Main Sth Rd duplication

The government says it’s about to begin canvassing opinions on duplicating Main South Road, but locals say the time for that passed years ago.

Main South Road at Sellicks Beach. Picture: Stephen Laffer

Consultation on the long-awaited duplication of Main South Rd will start later this month, the State Government says.

It came after the Main South Rd Action Group and the Opposition renewed their calls for the project to break ground, saying the upgrade, which was announced more than three years ago, was well overdue.

Stage One, at a cost of $305 million, involves the duplication of about 10km of Main South Rd, from Aldinga to south of Griffiths Drive in Seaford.

Map showing the Main South Rd duplication. Picture: DPTI

Stage Two continues the duplication for a further 6km, from Aldinga to Sellicks Beach.

Main South Rd Action Group chairman Craig Curtis said the community needed a road that was “capable of handling the expansion of the south”.

“Just get on with it,” he said.

Mr Curtis said the group wanted overpasses and underpasses included in the upgrade, but was worried the project would instead include roundabouts, which would cause traffic to back up.

Labor’s Leon Bignell, who represents the electorate of Mawson, said the community was “sick of the excuses”.

“We just want to see action,” he said.

“We did consultation in August 2017 – We know what we need; We need a dual lane road and overpasses and underpasses.”

The Opposition says the upgrade would support at least 165 jobs at a time when South Australia had the worst unemployment rate in the nation.

Labor in 2017, when in Government, committed $435 million to duplicate Main South Rd between Seaford and Sellicks Beach and committed funding in the budget to start work on Stage One in 2019.

The Liberals, after coming to power in 2018, commissioned a planning study for the project, which was completed last year.

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Sport Corey Wingard. Picture: Emma Brasier

Transport Minister Corey Wingard said the Government was excited to be delivering a $16,7 billion pipeline of infrastructure, including the Main South Rd duplication project.

“Consultation for this project will commence later this month,” he said.

“We’ve secured extra money to do Stage Two, something Labor failed for 16 years to do, and we’ve had to do more planning work that they never did.”

According to the Transport Department’s website, between 2012 and 2016, 237 crashes have occurred on Main South Rd between Robinson Rd, at Seaford Heights, and Sellicks Beach Rd.

Of these, 98 have resulted in injuries and two resulted in deaths.