Details of much-needed South Eastern Freeway safety upgrade revealed
Details of a major safety upgrade to an Adelaide highway have been confirmed just days after a driver was seriously injured when his truck rolled.
The South Eastern Freeway has been plagued by accidents in recent years and now extra money has been allocated in the federal budget to improve conditions.
Both the state and federal government will contribute to the now fully funded upgrade, which will include rolling out smart features to help manage the motorway.
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Details of the long-awaited South Eastern Freeway Safety upgrade have been released. 9News
Today, federal Minister for Infrastructure Transport Catherine King confirmed the Albanese government would invest a further $100 million to get the upgrade across the line.
The South Australian government will match the additional funding.
Top of the priority list is the plan to reconfigure the intersection at Cross Road and move traffic waiting at the lights further back from the intersection.
This means if trucks lose their brakes they don't barrel through cars. This change was a key initiative raised at an industry roundtable in 2022.
"Now that we have the resourcing with the Commonwealth government we can get our skates on," South Australian Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis said.
The minister believes the designs to change the intersection can be completed by December this year, before work can start.
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South Australian Road Transport Association's executive director Steve Shearer. 9News
Other changes to the South Eastern Freeway set to be rolled out are features of a "managed motorway", including controlled lane management and variable speed signs.
"The basic idea of an intelligent freeway that lets them do a lot of things a lot faster is a good part of the solution," South Australian Road Transport Association executive director Steve Shearer said.
There were also discussions about installing a third arrester bed - an area of special material designed to stop a runaway vehicle - but these are on hold for now because the transport minister doesn't believe it will work.
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The federal government has pitched in an extra $100m - in part to help make it a 'managed motorway' with new monitoring technology. 9News
"A third arrester bed probably won't change anything. What we can do though in a managed motorway is intervene a lot earlier," Koutsantonis said.
Shearer said his organisation wanted to see the option of a third bed "utterly examined to make absolutely sure whether it can or can't be done".
Last week a driver was badly injured when he lost control of a concrete pumping truck at the Glen Osmond intersection, smashed into a wall and turned over.
Nine people were injured at the notorious intersection in 2022, while two people died when a truck lost its brakes in 2014.
The South Australian government has not set a timeline on when the upgrades will be finished.
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