Political firestorm erups over secret Liberal plans to expand two Cross Rd intersections costing $579m

Taxpayers would have bought dozens of affluent suburban buildings to widen one of Adelaide’s busiest roads, secret official documents reveal.

Confidential expert reports, prepared for the former Marshall Liberal state government, show taxpayers faced a potential $579m bill to expand two busy Cross Rd intersections.

Taxpayers would have bought dozens of affluent suburban buildings to widen one of Adelaide’s busiest roads, secret official documents show, amid a political firestorm over freight truck routes.

Confidential expert reports, prepared for the former Marshall Liberal state government, show taxpayers faced a potential $579m bill to expand two busy Cross Rd intersections.

The papers, finalised five weeks before the 2022 state election, sparked a bitter war of words on Sunday night over truck diversion plans along a route from the South Eastern Freeway and Portrush Rd to Anzac Highway.

The Labor government claimed the “secret reports”, which were not handed to Cabinet, showed the Liberal administration developed plans to “carve out” land “to create a major freight corridor”.

Proposed upgrade plans for the intersection at Cross and Goodwood Roads investigated by the former Liberal state government. Picture: Aurecon

Taxpayers faced a potential $579m bill to expand two intersections along Cross Rd with the need to purchase multiple properties to widen lanes. Picture: Aurecon

The 16 month-Aurecon reviews, which were never publicly released. Picture: Tim Joy

Labor Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis ruled out diverting more trucks along the almost 9km inner southern suburbs “outer ring route” through some of Adelaide’s wealthiest areas.

The Opposition, and federal Liberal candidate Nicolle Flint who wants heavy freight trucks off Cross Rd, said Labor had publicly discussed such plans since 2013.

The “planning” studies, dated February 9 and 10, 2022, showed homes, businesses, a major shopping centre, an aged care facility and private school field were at risk at the Goodwood, Unley and Belair road intersections.

The 16 month-Aurecon reviews, which were never publicly released, detail several construction options for either more lanes, bridges or underpasses in suburbs including Malvern, Hawthorn, Kingswood as well as Unley, Kings, Clarence, Cumberland and Westbourne parks.

The second intersection investigated for upgrades at Cross and Unley Roads. Picture: Aurecon

Liberal officials said a “stack” of similar studies were undertaken. Picture: Aurecon

An expansion to the Goodwood Rd intersection, which carries almost 31,500 cars a day, would have cost taxpayers between $168.5m and $342m for extra lanes or “grade separation”.

A similar preferred widening of the Unley and Belair roads intersection, that up to 31,000 cars travel along, would have cost either $87.8m or $236.5m, experts stated.

Taxpayers would have fully, or partially, compulsory acquired between 75 and 188 properties for expansions that mirrored a controversial $61m Fullarton Rd intersection overhaul, which forced a heritage listed Urrbrae gatehouse move.

Liberal officials said a “stack” of similar studies were undertaken.

The federal Labor government dumped a planned Truro freight bypass in 2023 while the Liberal government abandoned its flagship Globelink plan in 2020.

In a statement, Mr Koutsantonis said he “absolutely rules out progressing these Liberal plans”, which his officials said he had “done consistently since 2018”.

“We are advancing sensible solutions for a Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, rather than thought bubbles like Globelink and an underscoped Truro bypass,” he said.

“By contrast, the Liberals not only developed secret plans for wholesale acquisitions around key Cross Rd intersections – they began putting those plans into action.”

Ms Flint, who is seeking another tilt at the local Boothby federal seat, said: “The Minister’s insistence that his lies are true does not make them true.

“Labor have no credibility on heavy truck freight in our hills and our suburbs – now on the eve of the federal election they are desperately trying to undo over a decade of their plans.”

State Liberal spokesman Ben Hood added: “Labor’s plan to turn Cross Rd into a major freight route has been in place since 2013, yet Tom Koutsantonis is now trying to rewrite history. South Australians deserve better than this kind of dishonest spin.”

Originally published as Political firestorm erups over secret Liberal plans to expand two Cross Rd intersections costing $579m