The proposed Torrens to Darlington project should be scrapped or substantially re-modified, and the money directed instead towards less climate damaging transport investment, says the state’s peak environment body.

MEDIA RELEASE
14 December 2022

Time to slam on the brakes in runaway South Road project

The proposed Torrens to Darlington project should be scrapped or substantially re-modified, and the money directed instead towards less climate damaging transport investment, says the state’s peak environment body.

“This dirty project comes with too great a price tag,” said Conservation SA Chief Executive Craig Wilkins. 

“And yet despite the eye-wateringly large investment, it won’t actually fix the problem. By the end of the decade, we will be back essentially at the same point we started: our city streets clogged with too many cars during peak hour.

“As every transport engineer knows, all road expansion projects do is encourage more people to drive, so the city will be back to square one but with far more debt.

“There is a heart-breaking opportunity cost with this project: every dollar spent on the South Road motorway is one less available to invest in cleaner, quieter and safer transport priorities.

“A $15+ billion investment in public transport, shared use, walking and cycling would be a genuine game changer for our city.

“It could pay for the much-needed diversion of freight trucks away from city streets, a massive upgrade to our train, tram and bus network to the southern and western suburbs, and a network of safe cycle and walking paths - and we would still have change left over.

“And it would be a safer and quieter with less smog and much lower carbon impact and create more jobs.

“We are already almost a third of the way through the critical climate decade in which we need to radically reduce our carbon emissions if we are to have any chance to avoid a climate catastrophe.

“Transport is the largest and fastest growing share of our state’s greenhouse emissions.  This project will massively supercharge that carbon pollution growth, rather than turn it around.

“It’s time to change lanes, dump this hyper-expensive carbon bomb and start investing in better transport options,” he said.