Torrens to Darlington: Tom Koutsantonis says rat runners causing suburban chaos show need for $15.4bn road

Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis says one act in particular proves why Adelaide needs a $15.4bn road upgrade.

Rat runners are flooding suburban streets at an unprecedented rate, causing chaos that would grind Adelaide’s road network to a halt without the $15.4bn Torrens to Darlington motorway, says Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis.

Delivering the argument for North South road corridor tunnels to an Adelaide business lunch, Mr Koutsantonis said traffic was slowing to an average 20km/h during peak hour along the existing South Rd corridor.

Crash numbers were increasing and three major roads were funnelling into one spot at Tonsley – the Southern Expressway and Shepherds Hill and Flagstaff roads.

Mr Koutsantonis blamed increased traffic volumes choking Adelaide’s north-south grid network of arterial roads for surging volumes of rat running – motorists dodging main roads by detouring through suburban streets.

“We’re the last modern city in Australia, capital city, that still operates on a grid network. Every other capital city on the mainland has got a non-stop corridor going through it to move traffic away from its grid network. We do not,” he told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia lunch on Wednesday.

“So what is occurring is people are rat-running and they’re rat-running at a rate now that is causing Marion Rd, Brighton Rd, Unley Rd, Goodwood Rd and any other parallel suburban road to grind to a halt.

“Where you would have normal suburban settings, where you’d like to see suburban settings, what you are seeing is peak hour traffic flooding the streets causing chaos.

“By 2031, our grid network will grind to a halt and that will have implications for the entire economy.”

Mr Koutsantonis said the 10.5km Torrens to Darlington project, which includes three tunnels under the western suburbs, would ease congestion by creating 78km of non-stop motorway after opening to traffic in 2031.

“What you are also seeing here is the network beginning to work again. A 78km non-stop network actually makes the grid network work again,” he said.

“We are taking traffic that is unnecessarily on the grid network at grade and we are moving it to a non-stop corridor which makes every other aspect of our grid network work.”

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis on June 21 at the first building works of the Selgar Ave road link into Tonsley ahead of Torrens to Darlington construction. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

Asked how skills shortages would be overcome to assemble a construction workforce for the project, Mr Koutsantonis urged a national conversation around migration, linked to the “golden ticket” of Australian citizenship.

Using the personal example of his Greek parents, Antonis and Dimitra, he said many post-war migrants came to Australia planning to leave but stayed because they became citizens.

“We should start linking citizenship to migration – a lot more than just getting in doing the work and leaving,” he said.