Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to confirm that I am very pleased that the state government of South Australia has confirmed this week its commitment to duplicating the Southern Expressway in my electorate of Kingston.

For those people who do not know, the Southern Expressway is an expressway on which traffic goes one way and then it changes in the middle of the night and goes the other way, obviously creating a lot of frustration for commuters that are trying to get to and from the southern suburbs. It was a mistake made by the previous Liberal state government that did not have the foresight, even if they could not afford to build the whole road, to plan ahead to ensure that there was space next to the existing expressway to duplicate it. It has been left to the South Australian government to duplicate it. I am very pleased that they committed to this in the state election campaign, and they have confirmed it this week.

However, there is some concern within the community over a number of specific design aspects, which I want to highlight to the House and which I hope that the state Labor government will pay considerable attention to. The first is the entry and exit point at Panalatinga Road. Currently residents have expressed their desire to include at this intersection an additional entry and exit ramp to accommodate those wishing to enter the Southern Expressway at this intersection to travel south and also for those wishing to travel north and exit at this intersection further down the southern suburbs. This is critically important because this is about connecting up the communities of the southern suburbs, making sure that they have access, that it will attract investment in jobs and a whole range of things. Ensuring that there is good ability to commute and to get across is really important. Many petitions that I have sent out have returned to my office saying that this is really important. I certainly urge the government seriously consider this and to plan for it so as not to make the mistakes of the past—that is, of not planning for this important addition to the Southern Expressway.

There has been some talk this week about the Darlington interchange. We know with the Southern Expressway that we need to make sure there is flow of traffic. There is no point in having the Southern Expressway flow only to then become congested at the end. It is important that the design at Darlington and the Darlington interchange is one that allows for free traffic movement to ensure that commuters from the southern suburbs can actually continue on their journey and not experience any congestion. I hope that once again the state government will consider this design very carefully. (Time expired)

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