Details of a major safety upgrade to the Adelaide Freeway have been confirmed, days after a driver was seriously injured when a truck rolled over. The Southeast Freeway has been hit by a number of accidents in recent years, and now extra money has been allocated in the federal budget to improve the road. Both the state and federal governments will contribute to the now fully funded upgrade, which will include the introduction of smart features to help manage the freeway.
Details of the long-awaited safety upgrade to the South Eastern Freeway have been released. (9News) Today, Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Catherine King confirmed the Albany government will invest a further $100 million to complete the upgrade. The South Australian Government will match the additional funding. The first priority will be to reconfigure the intersection at the junction and move vehicles waiting at traffic lights further from the junction. This means if a truck fails they will not run over cars. The change was a key initiative proposed at the 2022 industry roundtable. “Now we’ve got the resources from the federal government we can get started,” said South Australian Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis. The minister believes changing the design of the intersection could be completed by December this year before work can begin.
Steve Shearer, executive director of the South Australian Road Haulage Association. (9News) Other changes coming to the South Eastern Freeway are “managed freeway” features, including controlled lane management and variable speed limit signs. “The basic idea of smart motorways is to allow them to do a lot of things at a faster pace and this is a good part of the solution,” said Steve Shearer, executive director of the South Australian Road Haulage Association. There was also discussion of installing a third stop bed – an area of special material designed to stop erratic vehicles – but those discussions were put on hold because the transport minister did not think it would work.
The federal government has invested an extra $100 million, partly to make it a “managed highway” with new monitoring technology. (9News) “A third holdback might not change anything. But on a managed highway, what we can do is intervene earlier,” Koutsantonis said. Shearer said his organisation wanted to see the option of a third holdback “examined thoroughly to be absolutely sure it can be done”. Last week, a driver was seriously injured when he lost control of a concrete pump truck at the Glen Osmond intersection, crashed into a wall and overturned. In 2022, nine people were injured at the notorious intersection, while in 2014, two people died when a truck’s brakes failed. The South Australian government has not set a timeline for when the upgrades will be completed.