DPTI Matters - 3 July 2020

A word from the Chief Executive

View the Strategic Business Plan 2020-21

If you have any comments, suggestions, questions or concerns, please email them to telltony@sa.gov.au.

Celebrating an outstanding design

There was great news from the Australian Institute of Architects SA Awards last night, with our Oaklands Railway Station project receiving the Urban Design Award.

The station was designed by COX Architecture and Aspect Studios and will now be put forward for a national award.

Importantly, AIA SA Chapter president Tony Giannone highlighted DPTI’s leadership in delivering infrastructure to this standard, with a strong community focus in terms of public realm outcomes, as well as acknowledging the benefits of the alliance model we used.

DPTI has great opportunities to deliver cutting-edge projects that meet the highest community, business and environmental standards, and it’s encouraging to see we are hitting the mark.

Helping commuters to get on their bikes

There's been some great news for cyclists at the Paradise Interchange this week, with the opening of a bigger, more secure bike station, enabling travellers to cycle to the interchange and then jump on the O-Bahn for a quick trip to the city.

This is one important part of an integrated plan to help decrease the number of cars travelling to the city and to provide environmental and health benefits to the community.

Sometimes it's the little extras that help sway a big outcome, and this could well be one of those.

Thank you for the spirit of engagement

Sunday 5 July 2020 marks the first day of operations for Torrens Connect on Adelaide’s tram network.  During the course of the past 12 months we have engaged in consultation with the affected workforce to enable this transition to occur.

As you will appreciate, this is a significant matter for those employees and the conversations at times were challenging for all of us.  Right throughout, the engagement between employees and our management team was respectful and considerate as we worked through each of the issues that we needed to address.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally and sincerely thank everyone involved for the manner, the tone and the spirit of the engagement.

It is also of great credit to every individual in the tram services teams that throughout this period they remained dedicated to sustaining the quality of their work and the service to our customers. Please join me in thanking them for their service and wishing them well in the next step of their careers.

Offering early access to innovation

Our Planning department has taken the great step of delivering early access to the Planning and Design Code for South Australia’s outback and rural areas, to allow familiarisation with the online product.

Implementation of Phase Two (Rural Areas) of the Planning and Design Code Access is scheduled for 31 July, subject to the Minister’s final adoption of the Phase Two Code, but the public across the state can now take a look at both the Code and the South Australian Property and Planning Atlas, which are part of our first statewide e-Planning system.

Once live, development applications for the State’s outback and rural areas will be able to be submitted and tracked from the comfort of people’s homes, offices or while on the go, using a mobile phone, tablet or computer.

This is a great step forward and we anticipate a very positive reaction as planning submissions are modernised and made more accessible. Great work by the team involved.

Friday Flashback

Today’s Friday Flashback shows a street in Adelaide’s CBD in 1870. We’re not sure if there’s anything identifiable there but we’ll leave you to have a look and take a guess at where it is. The answer will be published next week.