Residents take to playing tennis, cricket on emptied South Rd overpass
SHUTTING down one of Adelaide’s busiest roads for repairs is just not tennis. Tennis! What a jolly good idea. Watch the video
AS TRAFFIC chaos at the South Rd overpass enters its fifth day the State Government can’t guarantee when the key thoroughfare will reopen — but it has confirmed traffic will be disrupted again when a long term fix of the damaged bridge at Blackforest is undertaken.
Repair work has already been delayed by Thursday night’s storm and Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan can’t say if the road will be open in time for the Monday morning peak hour.
However, he is hoping a short-term repair works will see the 1.2km length of road between Anzac Hwy and Cross Rd open to traffic as early as this morning.
“Unfortunately, I can’t say with any accuracy at this stage when we will have the road back open,’’ Mr Mullighan said at a press conference on site yesterday afternoon.
“We are aiming to have the raid open for the weekend but that depends on how the work progresses.’’
Workers are pining the beam which carries pedestrian and cyclist to the bridge supporting the tram after it shifted and caused debris to fall on the road below, forced police to close the arterial route around 7am on Wednesday.
This, however, is a short-term fix to the problem.
Mr Mullighan said the short term fix was “designed, assessed and certified by industry experts’’ but said it was “reasonable to assume’’ the final repair work would “most likely require a closer of South Rd traffic some time in the future’’.
The traffic free road, however, was not a total waste of space.
Two young men inspired by the Australian Open served up a game of tennis on Friday morning.
Ryley Smithson and Cameron Doyle donned their best summer white gear to have a hit on the empty thoroughfare.
“I saw a photo of people playing cricket (on the road yesterday) and was chatting with Cam about things we could do,” Mr Smithson said.
“Cam suggested tennis because the Aus Open is on right now.
“Plus any excuse for me to wear a short skirt, I’m down.”
Mr Smithson said the deserted South Rd “felt a bit apocalyptic”.
“The road wasn’t the weird bit for me, it was more the cross road bridge,” he said.
“It was unusual looking up at it and seeing nothing coming over the crest.”
Mr Doyle posted a 1:27-minute video of the mens’ stroke play on Facebook the same afternoon, which scored nearly 7000 views in an hour.