Add Category
Updated
South Australia's peak motoring body says Whyalla's road infrastructure is inadequate to safely support a forecast population explosion, and has vowed to make it an issue during this year's federal election.
The regional city's population is expected to quadruple over the next 10 to 20 years, thanks to the planned $1 billion expansion of the local steelworks.
Associated projects announced in December included a $6 million recycling plant, $45 million hotel and a $145 million horticulture plant, all of which contributed to a forecast population boost from 22,000 to 80,000.
Jayne Flaherty from the RAA told ABC Radio Adelaide that this would result in a "massive increase in freight, tourism, all sorts of vehicles" in the region and that infrastructure needed to be upgraded.
Key to that would be a duplication of the 200-kilometre stretch of highway between Port Augusta and Port Wakefield, which Ms Flaherty acknowledged would be expensive.
"All infrastructure projects do have cost implications involved, but when you consider the cost of serious injury and death, it pales in comparison to that, and also the emotional hardship people go through when they lose loved ones because roads aren't safe," she said.
'It makes sense'
Ms Flaherty said the Port Augusta Highway was already used by about 4,000 vehicles a day, with B-doubles, B-triples and road trains making up 20 per cent of traffic.
"You mix that with local commuters and tourist traffic and you start to get a good picture of the danger to smaller passenger vehicles," she said.
"We are calling ahead of the federal election for the major parties to look at this and commit to the staged duplication of the highway.
"When you factor in the population growth that's expected in Whyalla, and given the highway is already SA's busiest regional highway, it really does make sense to put some investment and attention to its staged duplication."
The RAA also wants more overtaking lanes on the Lincoln Highway between Whyalla and Port Augusta, a dedicated heavy vehicle bypass around Whyalla, safety upgrades and traffic lights at the busiest intersections, a Local Area Traffic Management Plan and new arterial roads for commuters.
State Transport Minister Stephan Knoll's office has been contacted for comment.
City built for 60,000 people
City of Whyalla chief executive Chris Cowling said trucking activity had increased, particularly between Whyalla and Port Augusta, and from a safety perspective the council would welcome any investment.
"We're looking at where people from Whyalla would be going, and obviously that route through to Adelaide, if we can duplicate that and make it safer ... it would really revolutionise the way people transition between the two cities."
He said the city itself was built for 60,000 people and most of the infrastructure was in place.
"What we're doing as a city council is starting to put our resources into asset management.
"We've had some difficulties with the supplier of our road sealing products, so we'll be delivering two years of road reseals before June 30.
"This will certainly go a long way towards repairing some of those roads that certainly need some renewal activity on them."
Topics: urban-development-and-planning, federal-elections, road, road-transport, states-and-territories, federal---state-issues, government-and-politics, human-interest, whyalla-5600, adelaide-5000, sa, australia
First posted