RAA - Backwater to Benchmark

[ReallyBad]

The RAA have released a document outlining the (poor) state of SA's roads - read more here: http://www.raa.net/media_news.asp?TerID=83&RefID=328

Points of interest are the scoring system and their proposals, some of note are:

Dukes Highway 6/10
Sturt Highway 6/10
Princes Highway (North) 5/10
Eyre Highway 4/10
Stuart Highway 5/10
Victor Harbor Road 4/10
Noarlunga to Cave Jervis Road 3/10
Riddoch Highway 5/10
Princes Highway (South) 3.5/10
Mallee Highway 4/10
Adelaide Hills Roads 5/10
North-South Corridor 2/10
Inner Ring Route 4/10
Outer Ring Route 5/10

With proposals being:

Extend the proposed South Road Tunnel under Grange and Port Roads to Anzac Highway (6km)
Overpass or underpass on South Road at Torrens Road, Regency Road, Grand Junction Road, Daws Road, Ayliffes Road and Sturt Road
Duplicate the Southern Expressway
Upgrade Britannia Roundabout
Overpasses at Gepps Cross and Glen Osmond Intersections

They have downloadable PDF's to read so take a look and let us know your thoughts.

[AtD]

The RAA make money from people driving their cars, so naturally they’d advocate more money being spent on roads.

[Howie]

Extend the proposed South Road Tunnel under Grange and Port Roads to Anzac Highway (6km)
Overpass or underpass on South Road at Torrens Road, Regency Road, Grand Junction Road, Daws Road, Ayliffes Road and Sturt Road

Here here... it's dreadful considering this one of the most heavily used sections of road in Adelaide.

[Algernon]

The RAA make money from people driving their cars, so naturally they’d advocate more money being spent on roads.

As a company that makes money from broken down cars, I thought they'd be thrilled with crumbling infrastructure

[Will]

Although most of you hate cars, they will always remain the prefered mode of transport in Adelaide. As a result I supoort the calls from the RAA to spend more money in infraestructure.

Our state is falling behind the other states. Our roads are a disgrace, definately not first world standard.

The proposal of a 6km tunnel under South Road, whilst expensive would become an Adelaide landmark and a sign of modernity and progress. The eastern capitals have a 'wow' factor that draws our young people partly because they have impressive roads.

[greenchilli]

6km tunnel isnt quite enough i believe - they shud demolish the tonsley railway line, extend southern expressway down the end until ascot pk station - and then place a tunnel from then on to where-ever it finishes. i think thats an extra 4-5km from anzac hwy, so a 10km tunnel.

[AG]

6km tunnel isnt quite enough i believe - they shud demolish the tonsley railway line, extend southern expressway down the end until ascot pk station - and then place a tunnel from then on to where-ever it finishes. i think thats an extra 4-5km from anzac hwy, so a 10km tunnel.

Fitting a freeway through that corridor would require far more than just demolishing the Tonsley rail line. The corridor is hardly wide enough to fit a 2 lane road, let alone a 4 or 6 lane freeway. It would require demolishing many houses and parts of one or two schools. Besides, the Tonsley rail line has quite a bit of potential if the line was duplicated and was extended to Bedford Park or possibly even further south to Happy Valley via the steep gradients of Bellevue Heights into a lot of suburbia. A 10km tunnel freeway tunnel is reasonably ambitious.

[Algernon]

definately not first world standard.

You talk some honest to god shit some times :wank:

[AtD]

Push the Tonsley line the extra distance into Flinders, it'd be better than any freeway.

[AG]

Push the Tonsley line the extra distance into Flinders, it'd be better than any freeway.

It'd be good, but building to the steep gradient of the area that Flinders Uni sits on would be quite challenging. That is part of the reason why the Belair line from Lynton Station begins going on an indirect curve south then east to Blackwood and then north again to Belair.

[ReallyBad]

Well I firmly believe that something needs to be done - exactly what that something is I am not entirely sure. However having queues of cars waiting for 3-4 trains only quarter full to go bye does not make sense to me.

Either the public transport needs to a massive overhaul to make people want to use it, or a better road system needs to be installed so it becomes more efficient.

I can't really see the train system becoming any better unless it was electrified and subways installed in certain locations - Airport, Norwood, City just a few.

I don't like the idea of South Road becoming a freeway in a softly, softly approach, I think a land purchase (yes I know it is expensive and the Bannon government sold all the land from the MATS) is the only way to go.

[UrbanSG]

I think the new South Road tunnels proposed by the Government are a good enough start. It is a step in the right direction as is the Port River Expressway. Steps backwards such as the City West Connector, (only two lanes and no overpasses, stupid!) and the Southern Expressway, bloody embarrassment, don't help though. We have to be realistic, we won't get everything all at once. There are steps in the right direction occurring now though. I hope they continue.

Also anyone know where the $14billion federal surplus will be going? We always here about these great surpluses but we never here what happens to them! Bloody spend them where they are needed please!!! If I'm going to get over-taxed I want to know where the money is going

[AG]

There is a fair bit of funding in AusLink from the Federal Government, but SA gets almost none of it! A huge chunk of it is going to Queensland in particular as well as NSW, but WA and SA get the awful end of the deal. The only AusLink funded projects in SA are the Port River Expressway and rail project. The other few projects are pissy. A lot of the projects interstate are being at least partly funded by the Federal Government. Just about all the transport projects in SA are being funded by the SA Government alone.

The second page of the RAA's report (http://www.raa.net/download.asp?file=do ... nt_673.pdf) shows quite a huge amount of favouritism to the attitude of spending all the funding on roads, and none on public transport.

"...decisions to heavily invest in public transport must be open to objective scrutiny..."

There is no doubt that South Road needs to be upgraded, but how is the question. A large freeway tunnel alone that runs underneath or adjacent to South Road seems a bit of a huge expense, while only upgrading part of South Road doesn't seem to be enough. A huge tunnel under South Road would almost replicate the situation in Sydney with the Lane Cove Tunnel which follows the existing Epping Road.

[AtD]

The govt's surplus is used to pay off public debt from previous governments. I did an essay on this stuff in first year. If you look on the Treasury web site, per captia, SA and WA get more federal money than QLD does.

[UrbanSG]

Yeah I thought that was few years back AtD. I was under the impression that the government debts had all but gone now?