[U/C] M2 North-South Motorway

[Llessur2002]

The Torrens to Torrens is even worse... this is a year old photo - the concrete plinths are badly cracked and crumbling now. And look at the unevenness of the guttering. The road surface also looks like its 20 years old. No street trees can fix the level of craptacular construction on display here

The amount of concrete and gravel used around the surface roads on the T2T section is appalling - the bleak and ugly outcome was inevitable even to my non-professional eye so I don't for one second believe the intended finish was anything better than what currently exists. You are right - it looks about 20 years old already.

You may remember me harping on about it at the time but the landscaping for much of the surface roadway was dumbed down at the very last minute - conveniently after all of the community liaison groups had been disbanded. There was an 11th hour announcement that much of the turf planned for the nature strips was to be replaced by shitty compacted gravel and several hundred of the planned trees and other plantings were also canned. Community backlash did manage to get many of the trees reinstated but the vast swathes of weed-ridden gravel still remain.

Here's a reminder of the renders which were superseded at the 11th hour vs the actual outcome:

Grange Road Intersection




Northbound Surface Road near Harriet Street




Northbound Surface Road near Hawker Street




Southbound Surface Road - Overpass Ramp



Releasing renders like this, basing all community liaison on them for several years and then massively dumbing them down in the days before practical completion makes a mockery of the whole process.

[Nort]

Yep, and people might say "oh, it's just a road" but many (albeit not all) of those areas are pedestrian areas.

[Goodsy]

All those trees are there... You need to wait another 10-15 years for them to actually grow

[Llessur2002]

Not all of the trees are there - look at the first render.

I did mention in my post that most of the planned trees ended up getting planted - although this took a fight. The remainder of the landscaping is vastly dumbed down from what was originally promised. The compacted gravel is a far inferior visual and environmental outcome to the turf and ground cover plantings.

[Batlin]

the brakes seem to have been applied to this project since Labor took office....

[SBD]

the brakes seem to have been applied to this project since Labor took office....

My impression is that the minister for Infrastructure and Transport does not want major road construction in his electorate while he is in office, so needs to delay it until he has announced his retirement.

Completing the northern section of the gap will also put more pressure on Cross Road and nobody has announced a viable plan to address that.

[rev]

the brakes seem to have been applied to this project since Labor took office....

My impression is that the minister for Infrastructure and Transport does not want major road construction in his electorate while he is in office, so needs to delay it until he has announced his retirement.

This is one stupid idea that keeps getting repeated.
Seriously, have a bit of a think about it.
He is the transport minister, he therefore has great influence over the outcome.
But you, and others, think that he doesn't want anything to happen, while he is in a position of influence as the transport minister, but rather wants to wait until he is retired.

That idea does not have any logical backing to it SBD.

You guys are thinking along personal lines.
The reality is that the new Labor government has promised some things, they want to find money to fund without raising tax, fees, levies too much or early on.
What they're going to use the remainder of the corridor for, is political point scoring, blaming the Liberals..which they've already started that...telling you the Liberals plan was poorly formed, not properly funded, didnt take this or that into consideration, would have left commuters and surrounding communities worse off and so on.

It's just delays for political reasons.

Completing the northern section of the gap will also put more pressure on Cross Road and nobody has announced a viable plan to address that.

?

There's never ever overall coherent plan for anything in this state.
Besides various transport organizations saying there needs to be a link between the NSM and SEF, I don't think any government or politician has said anything on the matter.

[SBD]

the brakes seem to have been applied to this project since Labor took office....

My impression is that the minister for Infrastructure and Transport does not want major road construction in his electorate while he is in office, so needs to delay it until he has announced his retirement.

This is one stupid idea that keeps getting repeated.
Seriously, have a bit of a think about it.
He is the transport minister, he therefore has great influence over the outcome.
But you, and others, think that he doesn't want anything to happen, while he is in a position of influence as the transport minister, but rather wants to wait until he is retired.

That idea does not have any logical backing to it SBD.

You guys are thinking along personal lines.
The reality is that the new Labor government has promised some things, they want to find money to fund without raising tax, fees, levies too much or early on.
What they're going to use the remainder of the corridor for, is political point scoring, blaming the Liberals..which they've already started that...telling you the Liberals plan was poorly formed, not properly funded, didnt take this or that into consideration, would have left commuters and surrounding communities worse off and so on.

It's just delays for political reasons.

Completing the northern section of the gap will also put more pressure on Cross Road and nobody has announced a viable plan to address that.

?

There's never ever overall coherent plan for anything in this state.
Besides various transport organizations saying there needs to be a link between the NSM and SEF, I don't think any government or politician has said anything on the matter.

So we agree that Tom K is delaying the construction of the final part of the NSM. I said it's because he thinks he won't get relelected by people who live in a construction zone, and you said it's not personal, it's political. A pretty subtle distinction.

In 2018, Liberal proposed a big vision that included a freeway from Monarto to the Sturt Highway (and thus the northern end of the NSM) as an alternative, but dumped it after the election. The report that canned it also considered a couple of smaller options. I'm not sure why nobody seems to have publicly given more consideration to the Short South variant - for both road and rail - to bypass the highest pass in the Mount Lofty Ranges. It would be interesting to check whether the Mount Barker extension developments have reserved space for the corridor.

[Vasco]

Kouts holds his seat at a 2PP rate of 68% and doubled the liberal vote on first preferences, so anyone who thinks he’s in jeopardy of losing his seat because of a project of State Significance spanning across the city (including suburbs of West Torrens) has rocks in their head. Did labor lose Croydon because of N/S upgrade no.

A large portion of the work will be happening under ground and as Rev said if anything he will want to influence the design to ensure a favourable outcome for his electorate while he is in that position.

Driving down south road today, it appears boring works are continuing in new locations.

Nevertheless he said (on 23 June) he expects a revised reference design ‘within weeks not months’, so has put himself under pressure to provide that.

If there are delays for budgetary reasons well that is on treasury.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rev]

So we agree that Tom K is delaying the construction of the final part of the NSM. I said it's because he thinks he won't get relelected by people who live in a construction zone, and you said it's not personal, it's political. A pretty subtle distinction.

The government is delaying it.
And that's not what you said. This is what you said;

My impression is that the minister for Infrastructure and Transport does not want major road construction in his electorate while he is in office, so needs to delay it until he has announced his retirement.

As Vasco has pointed out, Labor didn't lose the seat of Croydon because of the R2P construction, which saw Pym Street lose direct access from east to west which is a major inconvenience for local residents, it even resulted in bus routes being changed. Croydon is still Labor.

It's a government decision to delay it, revise plans. Because it gives them breathing room and makes it easier to point blame at the former Liberal government when the budget tightens. They're playing politics, both sides do it.

Tom isn't going to lose his seat that he's held for 20 years because of this, and been a Labor seat for much longer.
The Liberals once put up a candidate of Greek heritage to take Tom on, and they still couldn't win the seat.

[aceman]

finally something happening.

https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/majo ... ep-closer/

[SouthAussie94]

The Cadbury building just north of the Torrens appears to be in the early stages of being knocked down.

[NTRabbit]

finally something happening.

https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/majo ... ep-closer/

Given there's no residential and basically no commercial anywhere near enough to the construction site to complain about disruptions, I'm expecting this to happen fairly quickly.

[aceman]

finally something happening.

https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/majo ... ep-closer/

Given there's no residential and basically no commercial anywhere near enough to the construction site to complain about disruptions, I'm expecting this to happen fairly quickly.

that's it, there's nothing there except for a fire and ambulance station, council depot, BMX and soccer club none of which will have any issues with it.

[rev]

The Cadbury building just north of the Torrens appears to be in the early stages of being knocked down.

They've been at the back end of that site demolishing it for ages.