M1 South-Eastern Freeway

[SBD]

The freight route could work for freight bypassing Adelaide, but not if it ends at Truro and forces Port Augusta/Alice/Perth bound traffic to detour back down into the metro area along the Sturt Highway.

In order for this project to be effective it needs to extend to a northern bypass of the metro area from Truro to Nantawara via Kapunda, Tarlee, Owen and Balaklava. That way the metro area is bypassed without significant extra kilometres added.IMG_2763.jpeg

If or when that eventuates, I don't think the current project would be redundant or need much reworking.

The main components of this project are:

• Duplicate the Swanport Bridge - also needed as part of Adelaide-Melbourne. It's two narrow lanes connecting two sections of four lane highway. Victoria is gradually extending its Western Freeway to meet our Dukes Highway
• Murray Bridge bypass - a new heavy vehicle route around Murray Bridge between the SEF and areas north of the town
• Truro bypass - includes the narrow winding bit east of Truro on the Sturt Highway

The other components are a few overtaking lanes etc on relatively flat ground, two short bypasses around Cambrai and Sedan and probably upgrade the intersection at the Sturt Highway.

Truro to Nantawarra could be another big project of similar scale or the state could pick out smaller projects to ease the biggest itch of the day. There will still need to be more work on urban connection between the SEF and NSM. There will need to be more work between Truro and Nantawarra, whether it's a new big road upgrade, or smaller projects to get the increased heavy vehicle traffic away from the Roseworthy/Gawler Belt/Concordia urban sprawl. At some stage, the Sturt Highway is going to need to be realigned away from the Paringa Bridge, too.

[dbl96]

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Truro to Nantawarra could be another big project of similar scale or the state could pick out smaller projects to ease the biggest itch of the day. There will still need to be more work on urban connection between the SEF and NSM. There will need to be more work between Truro and Nantawarra, whether it's a new big road upgrade, or smaller projects to get the increased heavy vehicle traffic away from the Roseworthy/Gawler Belt/Concordia urban sprawl. At some stage, the Sturt Highway is going to need to be realigned away from the Paringa Bridge, too.

I just don’t see the Murray Bridge to Truro bypass working without a Truro to Nantawara extension. As others have pointed out, nobody is going to use a bypass if it requires significantly more time and fuel than using the existing route.

It stands to reason than nobody is going to use the Murray Bridge to Truro bypass to travel to Adelaide. Adelaide bound traffic will continue using the freeway and Portrush/Cross Rds.

The only traffic which would be interested in using a bypass would be traffic which is completely bypassing Adelaide (eg. Melbourne to Perth). But if there is no convenient way to complete the bypass of Adelaide (to the north), that traffic will also continue using the freeway. What is the point of a bypass for this traffic if it still has to detour back down to Gepps Cross?

[SBD]

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Truro to Nantawarra could be another big project of similar scale or the state could pick out smaller projects to ease the biggest itch of the day. There will still need to be more work on urban connection between the SEF and NSM. There will need to be more work between Truro and Nantawarra, whether it's a new big road upgrade, or smaller projects to get the increased heavy vehicle traffic away from the Roseworthy/Gawler Belt/Concordia urban sprawl. At some stage, the Sturt Highway is going to need to be realigned away from the Paringa Bridge, too.

I just don’t see the Murray Bridge to Truro bypass working without a Truro to Nantawara extension. As others have pointed out, nobody is going to use a bypass if it requires significantly more time and fuel than using the existing route.

It stands to reason than nobody is going to use the Murray Bridge to Truro bypass to travel to Adelaide. Adelaide bound traffic will continue using the freeway and Portrush/Cross Rds.

The only traffic which would be interested in using a bypass would be traffic which is completely bypassing Adelaide (eg. Melbourne to Perth). But if there is no convenient way to complete the bypass of Adelaide (to the north), that traffic will also continue using the freeway. What is the point of a bypass for this traffic if it still has to detour back down to Gepps Cross?

The three largest components are essentially standalone projects bundled together.

• Truro is the only main street left between Adelaide and Mildura on the main highway between Adelaide and Sydney.
• Swanport bridge is a bottleneck between Glen Osmond and the branch between the Dukes and Mallee highways (where The Bend motorsport park is)
• The current Murray Bridge route is fairly new, but really only a stop-gap solution (I think - I haven't seen it)

The other parts are of a similar scale to various upgrades to the Riddoch Highway in recent years. Even the Penola Bypass barely rated a mention.

I haven't seen if anyone has done a thorough study of where the endpoints are of freight journeys now and which way they go. Grapes and wine go back and forth between Coonawarra and Barossa regions. I've seen trucks on Portrush Road that might have been on that route, but I haven't checked. Google suggests the back-of-the-hills might already be quicker for that so the upgrades are safety and efficiency for a route already available.

I agree that extending the new route to the Augusta Highway would be good, but I'd rather see the first bits done now than wait until someone has designed and funded the whole thing in one hit. The points above are currently the most obvious problems in the long-distance road freight network. Next election cycle it's likely to be optimising a route between the Adelaide Hills and Outer Harbor as the same metro electorates will still be complaining.

[claybro]

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Truro to Nantawarra could be another big project of similar scale or the state could pick out smaller projects to ease the biggest itch of the day. There will still need to be more work on urban connection between the SEF and NSM. There will need to be more work between Truro and Nantawarra, whether it's a new big road upgrade, or smaller projects to get the increased heavy vehicle traffic away from the Roseworthy/Gawler Belt/Concordia urban sprawl. At some stage, the Sturt Highway is going to need to be realigned away from the Paringa Bridge, too.

I just don’t see the Murray Bridge to Truro bypass working without a Truro to Nantawara extension. As others have pointed out, nobody is going to use a bypass if it requires significantly more time and fuel than using the existing route.

It stands to reason than nobody is going to use the Murray Bridge to Truro bypass to travel to Adelaide. Adelaide bound traffic will continue using the freeway and Portrush/Cross Rds.

The only traffic which would be interested in using a bypass would be traffic which is completely bypassing Adelaide (eg. Melbourne to Perth). But if there is no convenient way to complete the bypass of Adelaide (to the north), that traffic will also continue using the freeway. What is the point of a bypass for this traffic if it still has to detour back down to Gepps Cross?

The three largest components are essentially standalone projects bundled together.

• Truro is the only main street left between Adelaide and Mildura on the main highway between Adelaide and Sydney.
• Swanport bridge is a bottleneck between Glen Osmond and the branch between the Dukes and Mallee highways (where The Bend motorsport park is)
• The current Murray Bridge route is fairly new, but really only a stop-gap solution (I think - I haven't seen it)

The other parts are of a similar scale to various upgrades to the Riddoch Highway in recent years. Even the Penola Bypass barely rated a mention.

I haven't seen if anyone has done a thorough study of where the endpoints are of freight journeys now and which way they go. Grapes and wine go back and forth between Coonawarra and Barossa regions. I've seen trucks on Portrush Road that might have been on that route, but I haven't checked. Google suggests the back-of-the-hills might already be quicker for that so the upgrades are safety and efficiency for a route already available.

I agree that extending the new route to the Augusta Highway would be good, but I'd rather see the first bits done now than wait until someone has designed and funded the whole thing in one hit. The points above are currently the most obvious problems in the long-distance road freight network. Next election cycle it's likely to be optimising a route between the Adelaide Hills and Outer Harbor as the same metro electorates will still be complaining.

[NTRabbit]

Our state government is sleeping at the wheel if they aren't working this federal election to get more funding for projects in SA.

There's not really a lot they can do - with only 2 marginal seats in the entire state, one of each colour, there's little incentive for either Fed party to do more than make a medium sized promise or two on a compulsory whistlestop before they go back to promising money where the election will be won and lost, Sydney and Brisbane. Even then, us and Tasmania are first on the chopping block once the election is over and the winning party starts deciding which of their promises they can actually afford to fund.