State Budget includes $1.1 billion for regional roads and $734 million for metropolitan upgrades

A series of road upgrades – in the city and far beyond it – were announced in Tuesday’s Budget, including our biggest and most difficult project so far.

• Budget wrap
• Five-minute guide

Money for roads is a centrepiece of the Budget with Treasurer Rob Lucas saying a slowing national economy meant it was not the time “to turn the tap off” infrastructure projects.

It includes a $1.1 billion commitment to regional roads, over eight years, and $734 million for metropolitan transport infrastructure.

Funding to widen Flagstaff Hill Road, in Belair, was announced for the first time.

The project joins funding for the Torrens Road, Ovingham and Brighton Road, Hove level crossings and a $98 million intersection upgrade at Portrush and Magill Roads in Trinity Gardens.

Other road projects are worth $86 million.

A map of transport infrastructure projects announced in today’s State Budget. Picture: SA Liberal Media

Infrastructure minister Stephan Knoll said the funding would build a pipeline of metropolitan road upgrades to bust congestion, reduce travel times and improve safety.

“We have an ambition to increase our population growth and these infrastructure upgrades will help support a growing population,” he said.

The Budget includes $5.4 billion dedicated to the final stages of the North-South Corridor, including the most difficult stretch of the state’s biggest ever road infrastructure project from the River Torrens, near Thebarton, to Darlington.

Mr Lucas said the funding would not be enough to complete the project, with work still required to determine whether or not tunnels were a viable option. It still has an estimated completion date of 2028-29, with the other, smaller projects expected to fill the void in the meantime.

An artist’s impression of the tunnel that could form the final stage of the North-South Corridor.

Arguing now was not the time “to turn the tap off” infrastructure projects, Mr Lucas said he was in discussion with Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to push forward federal funding to more quickly turn projects into reality.

Civil Contractors Federation chief executive Phil Sutherland welcomed the Budget but raised concerns about the time it would take for many of the projects to roll out: “Unfortunately, most of the investment will occur over a number of years, in some instances the project construction phase is not scheduled to occur for up to 10 years.”

He said many of the construction projects approved in the 2018/19 Budget were still to come to market.

Opposition infrastructure spokesman Tom Koutsantonis agreed, saying most of the funding for regional roads and the North-South Corridor was not in the forward estimates.

“But we have been saddled with massive debt,” he said.

“South Australians should feel mislead.”

Funding is still in the Budget for previously announced projects, including duplication of the Joy Baluch AM Bridge project, the Port Wakefield Overpass and Highway Duplication project and the $14.6 million Penola Bypass project.

But there was no funding for Globelink, that would include a freight airport at Monarto. Mr Lucas said it would only go ahead if a business case stacked up.