The Torrens to Darlington link is the final section of the North-South corridor to be completed and a very important piece of infrastructure for our city and state, but there are many serious flaws with the government’s existing plans for this project, including:

• Extreme cost, with current estimates putting the cost at $15.4 billion. That’s several billion dollars more than it should cost to complete this motorway, and grossly out-of-proportion to the cost of other sections of the motorway completed to date.
• Few entries and exits, meaning poor access to/from several important arterial roads and poor access to the airport, especially from the north. This is not only inconvenient but also likely to cause traffic problems at some entries and exits.
• Poor long-term planning, with no provision being made for a future motorway connection to the South Eastern Freeway. The government’s plans would make it very difficult and expensive to build that connection in the future, leaving us with a disjoint motorway network.
• Misleading claims that 480 properties would be saved by building tunnels, when the net number of properties saved is only about 150 under the original plan and 110 under the recently updated plan (as of January 2023).
• Long construction times, with the project not expected to be completed until 2030 at the earliest, and very little short-term relief for motorists before that time.
• Not fit for purpose as a primary freight route, with vehicles carrying dangerous goods (such as fuel tankers) being prohibited from using the tunnels.
• Requires rebuilding the tram overpass, when it should be possible to avoid most of this expense.
• Leaves significant deficiencies in South Road unaddressed, such as
  • The lack of bicycle lanes along most parts of South Road that would be bypassed by the northern and souther tunnels.
  • The level crossing at the Cross Road intersection and limited right-turn capacity at that intersection.
  • Probably insufficient capacity at other key intersections to handle long-term growth in traffic.

The good news is that the people of South Australia do not need to accept this overpriced, inferior solution, as there is a much more affordable option available which solves these problems, delivering a much better outcome for the people of Adelaide and South Australia. This document describes this alternative solution, which involves:

• Building the motorway without tunnels in a way that saves several billion dollars compared to the government’s plans, without requiring many more properties to be acquired. It will also be faster to construct.
• Keeping the local residents happy through a combination of good design and a generous (though still very affordable) compensation scheme for everyone who lives near the new motorway. Many residents would rather receive this money than have tunnels built.
• Minimising noise impacts with a combination of noise walls and quiet asphalt pavement, resulting in noise levels that are comparable to and may even be less than the existing South Road.
• Preserving heritage buildings by either designing the road in such a way as to avoid them, or, in a few cases, moving them out of the way (it is possible to move an entire masonry building in one piece, as explained below).
• Providing more entries and exits in places where they are needed to provide fast and convenient access to all intersecting arterial roads along the route, and the best possible access to the airport.
• Including provision for a future motorway link to the South Eastern Freeway by building the interchange as part of this project, saving the state a large amount of money in the long run.
• Improving the property acquisition process to give property owners more time to move out and better compensation, while still delivering fairness and good value for money for the taxpayer.
• Providing near-term relief to motorists through much more substantial and effective improvements to alternative routes. This will be easily affordable with a fraction of the money saved by not building tunnels, and will provide additional long-lasting benefits to Adelaide’s transportation network, especially in the western suburbs.
• Fixing many problems with South Road that would not be fixed under the government’s plans, including the lack of bicycle lanes.

The tunnels plan doesn’t even achieve one of its main aims, which was to save almost 500 properties from demolition. It’s now just an expensive way to demolish almost the same number of properties as a motorway built without tunnels.