State Government scraps right hand turns for North Terrace trams
The State Government says it would have been “pig-headed” to go ahead with right-hand turns for trams on North Tce, after a report showed a cost blowout — but Labor says the problems were known all along.
A plan to have trams turn right on North Tce has reached the end of the line after the State Government put up the stop sign.
Premier Steven Marshall made a $37 million election pledge to ensure trams could turn right on to North Tce from King William St, heading towards the old Royal Adelaide Hospital.
He repeated that promise earlier this month.
The Sunday Mail revealed on Sunday that the cost of adding a right tram turn on to North Tce would be $117 million — a blowout of $80 million.
Later on Sunday, Transport Minister Stephan Knoll pulled the pin.
Labor immediately went on the attack, saying the Government should have known the plan was a “dud”.
Mr Knoll said it would have been “pig-headed” to go ahead with the plan despite the dire warnings.
An Aurecon report, commissioned by the Government, said putting in the turn would mean an “unacceptably high” risk of tram derailment, forcing the Government to buy new trams that could cope with the turn.
Pooled water would risk cars aquaplaning, trees would have to be removed, and major works to the tracks and other infrastructure would mean an extra 10 minutes to travel 1.2km along North Tce in peak hour.
The report says the turn might still be possible, but transport department costing put the price tag at $117 million.
Mr Knoll said the cost and disruption was “no longer the right thing to do”, despite being an election promise.
“Not only would we see the cost blow out to at least $117 million, we would see traffic banking up down to Magill Rd with an extra 10 minutes of waiting time during peak hour for cars to get in on North Tce,” he said.
“We would see the unacceptable risk of trams derailing … we’d have to see this intersection shut down for between eight to 10 weeks.”
The election promise was “based on the information we had at the time”, he said.
“We could have been pig-headed and gone along with this, or we could have ‘fessed up, done the right thing, canned this project.”
The former Labor Government had ditched the idea after designers struggled with the complexity of the project, sparking public disbelief that the state couldn’t get a tram to turn right.
The Liberal Party then said they would complete the project if they won.
Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said an “extraordinary series of events” had led to the “broken promise” because the Government had been told of the issues by department officials.
He said they made a “crystal clear iron-clad promise” knowing full well there would be extraordinary costs.
Mr Knoll said they did not know the $80 million blowout figure until they got the report (more than a month ago) and had the costings done.
The $37 million will now go into Government coffers for the time being.