Connect - 9 October 2020

Partnering for road safety

Road safety messaging opportunities provided through partnerships with like-minded organisations is a critical component in building and maintaining a strong road safety culture in South Australia.

We are now nearing the end of this year’s AFL season with just one more home game expected to be played at Adelaide Oval this year. Throughout the season the department, through the THINK! Road Safety initiative, has partnered with the Adelaide Football Club, Port Adelaide Football Club and Adelaide Oval to share important road safety messages.

This year, Adelaide Crows’ Daniel Talia and Port Adelaide’s Brad Ebert asked all supporters to THINK! Road Safety.

Efficiency for road infrastructure with new framework

After extensive consultation, the department is now implementing a new framework for management of all transport infrastructure projects.

Centred on best practice principles, this is an effective and efficient end to end framework that covers all elements of project management from governance, project controls, change management and lessons learned.

The new framework provides clarity on the requirements for all project categories and supports Transport Planning and Delivery Project Managers in delivering successful outcomes.

A phased approach will transition road infrastructure projects and programs by 31 December 2020, with rail and marine projects to follow early in 2021.

Below: Drone image of the Darlington Upgrade Project construction in November 2018.

Checking vessels for marine safety

Our marine patrols were out and about last week for National Safe Boating Week, checking vessels and equipment to educate boaters about safety on the water this summer.

Even with the recent inclement weather, Marine Safety Officers were still able to check a total of 125 vessels along the metropolitan coastline, Yorke Peninsula and at multiple locations along the west coast as far out as Streaky Bay – a great effort by the teams.

Of the vessels checked, a compliance rate of 50% was reported and our marine patrols prevented 14 vessels from launching due to missing safety equipment. In total, 22 expiations and 36 cautions were issued during the week, primarily related to safety equipment as well as concerns about flares and lifejackets.

Throughout the rest of the summer boating season, our marine team will continue to promote the Live Safe Boating message via an awareness campaign and localised boat ramp checks, highlighting the importance of preparation, safety and responsibility.

Above: Marine Safety Officer, Stephen Kusznir, engaging with a boater last week.

Positive stakeholder engagement

One of my visions for our department is that we continue to engage with our communities with early, open and transparent engagement – this includes our key stakeholders as they are vital to ensure positive outcomes for our projects.

This week I received a letter of thanks from one of our stakeholders, the National Railway Museum, expressing gratitude to our department for rail track work over the past nine months.

In the letter they said our project team’s “collective and positive relationship with our railway museum and standard of works undertaken over the last nine months has been so rewarding and we hope mutually beneficial.”

Thank you to everyone involved.

Vale Des Nicholls

Yesterday we unveiled a memorial plaque at the Northern Connector project site.

The memorial plaque and stone were installed by the department to commemorate the life of Des Nicholls, a valued member of the Northern Connector project team.

Mr Nicholls worked for Intract Indigenous Contractors in the initial phase of the project, and was a highly respected supervisor, mentor and leader.

Friday Flashback

This week’s flashback takes us to 1925, with a photo published in the Chronicle of men working on the structure of the new Railway Bridge over the River Murray at Murray Bridge.

The first road bridge across the lower Murray in this area was known as ‘The Murray Bridge’ and was completed at Edwards' Crossing in 1879. This road bridge became a shared road and rail bridge in 1886 until the separate rail bridge in the photo below was completed in 1925 to better connect Adelaide with the eastern states.

The 1925 rail bridge was designed, manufactured and assembled in South Australia.

(SLSA B 3161)