The Hills are alive with the sound of progress

Sunday, 20 October 2024

Residents of Mount Barker and the Adelaide Hills will have better access to and from their communities with improved safety and traffic flow in the state’s fastest-growing city, with significant progress on a suite of major projects totalling $190 million.

Feedback from the local community has helped to shape the design of the State Government’s $40 million upgrade to a key intersection in Mount Barker.

The project will include a new, dual lane roundabout at the intersection of Adelaide Road, Alexandrina Road, Wellington Road and Flaxley Road.

Adelaide Road and Flaxley Road will receive new signalised pedestrian crossings, while the existing crossing on Wellington Road will be relocated to improve safety. The roundabout will also include new Shared Use Paths and road lighting.

With businesses, community spaces and Mount Barker High School all located around the intersection, the intersection has long been a safety and congestion concern for the local community.

The design was shaped by feedback received from almost 250 people during community consultation that included listening posts, stakeholder meetings, an online survey and local doorknocking.

The top five issues identified during this engagement were congestion, motorist safety, improved capacity, pedestrian paths and turning movements into local roads.

The new Shared Use Paths will connect to the existing path networking and on/off ramps will allow cyclists to safely negotiate movements through the intersection, improving safety for all road users.

On average, approximately 31,000 vehicles travel through the Adelaide Road intersection per day and these volumes are expected to increase as development continues in Mount Barker. The upgrade has been designed to cater for this increase in traffic.

Construction is planned to start in 2025 and be completed in mid-2026 and will support approximately 170 full-time jobs per year over the life of the project.

Meanwhile, the tender process for the Mount Barker and Verdun interchanges is now underway, with the Government seeking interest from the construction industry to undertake the detailed design and delivery of the long-awaited project.

Following a Registration of Interest (ROI) which closed in July, the Expression of Interest (EOI) for the design and delivery of the project is now open - an important step in the process to select the delivery partners to work with the Department for Infrastructure and Transport.

Upgrading the Mount Barker and Verdun interchanges on the South Eastern Freeway will improve safety and traffic flow for the thousands of motorists who travel every day between the city and Adelaide Hills communities, including Mount Barker.

The interchange upgrades will support local businesses and economic and population growth in the area by providing for future increases in traffic volumes.

The current Mount Barker Interchange is subject to significant traffic congestion and queuing, with 43 crashes reported between 2019 and 2023, including 16 crashes that involved casualties.

It will be upgraded to include a new three-lane bridge across the South Eastern Freeway for northbound traffic, the conversion of the existing bridge to accommodate three lanes of southbound traffic and a new shared use path, plus improved ramp capacity and new traffic signals to improve safety.

The existing Verdun Interchange will be upgraded to a full interchange, allowing access to and from the South Eastern Freeway in both directions to improve connectivity and traffic flow.

It will feature an eastbound entry ramp towards Mount Barker, and a new westbound exit ramp which will cross under the existing westbound entry ramp and connect with a new roundabout at Mount Barker Road adjacent to Silver Road.

The total project cost to upgrade the Mount Barker and Verdun interchanges is $150 million, with the Australian Government committing $120 million and the State Government contributing $30 million.

This project will support approximately 260 full-time equivalent jobs per year during the construction period. Major construction on the interchanges is expected to begin in late 2025.