South Road Bridge is falling down: Severed artery causes commute chaos in Adelaide

ANOTHER day, another infrastructure fail in SA, this time with a section of our busiest road shut down. This was the scene during peak hour on Wednesday.

MOTORISTS face peak-hour misery with the abrupt closure of one of Adelaide’s busiest arterial roads after decaying debris from a 2009-opened foot-bridge began collapsing on to South Rd.

Traffic was brought to an standstill early Wednesday morning when the footpath of the tram bridge began falling apart, forcing thousands of commuters to seek alternative routes.

Although repair work is set to begin today, the Transport Department could not say when South Rd would be reopen, maintaining safety was the priority.

Standed commuters wait for alternative transport under the South Rd overpass. Photo Sam Wundke

The large closed section from Cross Rd to Anzac Highway caters for an average of 50,000 vehicles a day, including 3500 heavy vehicles, which will now have to be dispersed into residential side streets.

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Stephen Mullighan said structural engineers from the transport department were called in to inspect the faulty bridge yesterday morning, after cyclists noticed debris “falling away” from the pedestrian path.

“We regularly inspect all our infrastructure in SA and it’s only when we see a problem like this that we need to rectify it and make sure that the public is kept safe while we’re going through that process.”

Work will start today to secure a concrete beam on the overpass that has tilted.

SA Civil Construction Federation chief executive Phil Sutherland said the crumbling infrastructure was a concern that would need to be carefully addressed – something that could take weeks to rectify.

Bike and tram bridge closed at South Rd after cyclists reported part of the path had "fallen away". Trams only going to stop 8 @theTiser pic.twitter.com/iV6YcAFA0D

— Eugene Boisvert (@eugeneboisvert) January 17, 2017

“The structural engineers will have to look at this very, very carefully – I imagine they were out there (yesterday) doing that and then it really depends on their advice to the Government and the level of repairs necessary,” he said.

“It could be an indication of a very major fault, which could take weeks to repair, or if it’s a relatively minor structural issue it might be possible to reopen the road and just put some safeguards around the area that has failed.”

Mr Sutherland said the State Government “absolutely” needed to do additional checks on other infrastructure in SA because of the incident.

“Now you’ve got commercial traffic going through side streets, it’s going to overload Marion Rd and Goodwood Rd, which are already overloaded,” he said.

It does raise the question of the soundness of the bridge with the failure ... with a large lump of concrete falling down to the road surface, so it’s going to need a very thorough inspection. It is a commentary on the adequacy of our road transport network – where an incident like this can bring the entire north to south corridor – across metropolitan Adelaide to a standstill.

Shadow Minister for Transport and Infrastructure David Pisoni said the damage to the bridge was a major disruption to the city of Adelaide, and the State Government needed to “immediately” explain to the public what the problem is and why it has happened.

“I’ve just been told that the joint in the bridge has dropped and is no longer aligned. They can’t tell me how long it will take to fix it, they still don’t know as they’re still analysing what the problem is. But the fact that this is modern infrastructure and less than 10 years old is extraordinary,” he said.

“It really does raise questions about this Government’s management of infrastructure over the last 15-years.”

Adelaide Metro trams resumed services on Wednesday but are not stopping at Stop 6.

MULLIGHAN PLEDGE ON BIKEWAY FAULT

by Douglas Smith

THE builders of the South Rd tram overpass at Black Forest will be held accountable for the damage to the crumbling infrastructure if found to be at fault, the State Government says.

McConnell Dowell Creative Construction was contracted by the State Government to build the $30 million project which opened in December 2009.

The South Rd tram overpass was designed by architects Swanbury Penglase, which was also behind the Munno Para Train Station upgrade.

Part of the damage on the South Rd tram bridge. Photo: Lew Toop

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Stephen Mullighan said the builders would be held accountable if found to be at fault.

“We’ll be looking at who is responsible for that going on and yes, we’ll definitely be holding them to account,” he said.

Mr Mullighan denied the incident should prompt additional inspections of the state’s infrastructure.

“If we’re regularly checking our infrastructure I’m not sure what an additional check would show until such time as we see a problem with the existing infrastructure that we have,” he said.

South Australian Freight Council chief executive Evan Knapp yesterday called for urgent action to ensure the structural integrity of the South Rd overpass.

He also questioned how a relatively new piece of infrastructure could fail.

“It is completely unacceptable for South Road – SA’s busiest road and the spine of Adelaide’s transport network – to be closed due to structural failings on relatively new infrastructure,” Mr Knapp said.

“The question of how this infrastructure could fail so quickly, impacting on both the public and freight transport industry, must be answered swiftly and publicly, with those responsible held to account.”

The Advertiser attempted to contact McConnell Dowell Creative Constructions multiple times yesterday but they refused to comment.