PROPERTY COUNCIL CAMPAIGN

HANSARD: HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY

Tuesday 3 April 2012 Page 1036

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:22):

On 25 March, the Property Council of Australia released a survey of 5,200 Australians about the liveability of their cities and how their governments performed in urban policy. For the second year running Adelaide was the winning city. Adelaide is seen as an affordable place with a good standard of living, as well as being clean, well maintained and unpolluted. Last week also saw the Property Council launch a campaign to improve cities across Australia.

I am pleased to say that, in his speech to the National Press Club, the CEO of the Property Council of Australia, Peter Verwer, said that South Australia is the only jurisdiction to have integrated city planning and target setting right—the only jurisdiction in the nation. This is an endorsement of both the 30-year plan and also South Australia's Strategic Plan.

While these accolades are welcome, the government intends to keep striving to further improve our city.

The survey also highlighted the types of housing development Adelaide residents want for the future, with a high level of support, interestingly, being for the conversion of old industrial sites to apartments and townhouses, which is good news for the Bowden, Brompton and other developments.

GRADE SEPARATION & HAWKER STREET

The level crossings at Torrens Road and Hawker Street provide a continuing source of frustration to motorists when freight trains are forced to slow down or stop across these intersections to allow the passenger trains priority passage over the Torrens Junction track crossover in the Adelaide City Park lands.
This delay would be greatly reduced if a “grade separation” was constructed at the Torrens Junction – by way of a bridge or culvert – to remove the intersection of the freight and passenger rail tracks.
A proposal by the State Government to the Federal Infrastructure Australia to construct this grade separation at Torrens and Goodwood Rail Junctions was prioritized number one project by the Federal Government in 2009.
The other prioritized projects were:
F3–Branxton Freeway (NSW)
Majura Parkway (Stage 2) (ACT)
Pacific Highway Corridor (NSW)
Ipswich Motorway Upgrade
While the Torrens Junction proposal did not get Federal funding, all the others were successful. Why? Motorists stuck at Torrens Road and Hawker Street by freight trains will no doubt be asking this question.
The most likely reason for the failure was the decision of the State Government to amend its application to include provision for the undergrounding of the Park Terrace  passenger line and Bowden Station as part of the Bowden Urban Village Transport Orientated Development.
However because the BUV TOD proposal was still at a early stage of planning, it could not meet the requirement of the Federal Government that funding would be committed to those projects which were “ready to go” – this being a crucial part of the (successful) strategy to protect the economy from the effects of the global financial crisis.
Now the State Government appears to be hoping that grade separation will  be funded in part by the rail industry itself –
“The development of more efficient national land-based freight transport links to overseas markets is critical for South Australia’s economy. The rail industry will be encouraged to upgrade the freight rail network through Adelaide to reduce conflict with passenger transport, as well as upgrading the Adelaide-Melbourne link. This will be supported through the expansion and development of intermodal facilities.” [Strategic Infrastructure Plan SA –Discussion paper 2010]
This in turn suggests that the undergrounding of Bowden Station – now the centre-piece of the BUV master plan – will have to be funded by the State Government. If only the scheme had  a “Black Box” attached in 2009.

275 kV XLPE Cable Bridge & PEDESTRIAN CROSSING

Artists imression of the new bridge at Bonython Park (courtesy ELECTRANET)

NOTE TO CRANE FANCIERS: The lift will be happening before the end of May. At this stage, (17/5/2011) the results of soil compression tests are requyired before the   cranes can access the site            A new 38m span concrete bridge crossing the River Torrens at Bonython Park is now under construction
Of particular interest is the integration of the cable installation and operation alongside high pressure gas mains located on common structures, and security from vandalism or falling tree branches

 Bridge under construction showing cable form-guides

the span on Bonython Park ready to load

The Bowden /Thebarton  area now has a large range of infrastucture planned or existing, and is a focal point for pedestrian & cycle paths, gas, water, high voltage electricity,  train, tram and motor transport.

National Urban Policy Discussion Paper

Our Cities - building a productive, sustainable and liveable future is open for comments and feedback.
National Urban Policy Discussion Paper Open for Public Comment until 1 March 2011  This discussion paper is accompanied by a Background and Research Paper Our Cities - the challenge of change. Both of these documents can be downloaded from this website.

The background papers have some interesting data – see for example a chart of capital city population growth (as %) since 1910



-showing Adelaide’s  declining share of the national population growth amongst the other capital cities.
A report on this is carried at  Larvatus Prodeo  Blog

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