Latest community news
See the Sedge Skipper
Some of the Fleurieu Peninsula’s smaller, winged residents will benefit from new plantings along duplicated stretches of Main South Road and Victor Harbor Roads.
The re-introduced plants, which will be planted along both project corridors, will provide important habitat for an endangered butterfly species.
Seeds from native species have been sourced locally and are currently being grown in a nursery in Adelaide’s north. A total of 140,000 plants are being grown and 10% of these will be a native thatching grass (Gahnia filum), which is also home to the endangered sedge skipper butterfly.
Gahnia filum is a favourite food source for this butterfly, and also a protective home for its larvae.
The Fleurieu Connections Alliance has been working on this project with commercial landscaping business Ecodynamics.
Ecodynamics State Manager SA Chris Francis says that the seed for the replantings has been collected and sourced locally from the Onkaparinga Council area, including Onkaparinga Reserve, and from Inman Valley.
Chris says a total of 45 species will be replanted, including about 10,000 trees, 50,000 large and medium shrubs, 60,000 low shrubs and groundcovers and 20,000 grasses, sedges and rushes.
The top species include: Bursaria spinosa (Christmas bush), Dianella brevicaulis (Coast flax-lily), Gahnia filum (Chaffy saw-sedge), Olearia ramulosa (twiggy daisy-bush) , Rhagodia spinescens (Spring saltbush).
He said more than 90% of the reintroduced species will be native to the area, and there were some key advantages of choosing natives.
‘These are species that are adapted to the region and the local conditions. It’s a way of re-establishing the local plant community,’ he says.
‘Some of the species also have cultural significance for the Kaurna and other indigenous groups of the region’.
Fleurieu Connections Alliance Manager Environment Laura Meredith agrees that the sourcing and collection of local seed was significant.
The project is an opportunity to replace key species to this area, which then provide new homes and food sources for insects such as the sedge skipper, and larger birds and fauna, she says.
Laura says the community and local environmental groups were engaged on the revegetation project.
‘The community had input into both the development and the review of the species list,’ she says.
The planting colour palette has also been informed by discussions with friends of groups, the City of Onkaparinga and the Department for Infrastructure and Transport to ensure that species selection corresponds with the surrounding environment.
The re-vegetation and planting works are anticipated to start in July/August.
View the Port Road Bridge here
Motorists on Main South Road, Aldinga are now travelling over a new surface bridge as below ground works continue for this project.
The bridge recently opened and traffic was switched across to start using the new structure, situated at the intersection of Main South Road and Port Road.
The signalised bridge improves safety for motorists travelling from the Aldinga village onto Main South Road, and for north and south-bound traffic. It replaces the roundabout that motorists previously needed to navigate at this intersection.
Southbound traffic is now crossing the surface bridge at Port Road to access Aldinga. This traffic will travel on external surface roads while the underpass is being constructed. Vehicles leaving Aldinga that are southbound will also use the bridge.
A shared use path on the bridge provides safe access for cyclists and pedestrians travelling across Main South Road to Flour Mill Road.
In addition, a new footpath connects the shared use path to St Ann’s Anglican Church, and other businesses on the eastern side of Main South Road—providing safe access for pedestrians.
This project has benefited from the help and knowledge of a strong local workforce, particularly attracting workers, supply chain partners and contractors from the Fleurieu region and nearby.
More than two thirds of the team that built the structure live within a 45-minute radius of site. Approximately 70% of the contractors on this project live within 1 hours’ drive of the site, and 90% of workers are from SA-based supply chain partners.
View the Tatachilla Overpass here
The heaviest concrete beams that have been created in Adelaide for 15 years were recently installed on the new Tatachilla overpass.
The new overpass is situated on Main South Road at the intersection of Tatachilla Road and Maslin Beach Roads.
A recent milestone for this project was the installation of the super-T girders, which are beams that are part of the support structure for the overpass.
Each of these super-T beams is weighs 81.7 tonnes or the equivalent of approximately 50 family sedans.
These girders were poured at Adelaide company Bianco and trucked to the Tatachilla site in the early mornings.
Other major pieces of the overpass include 744 pre-cast wall panels, each weighing approximately 2 tonnes.
The next step for this project is the pouring of the 36-metre deck in two stages. There are 200 cubic metres of concrete in the bridge deck.
The overpass is anticipated to be complete and open to traffic in mid to late August 2023.
It aims to improve traffic flow for the approximately 18,600 vehicles that use Main South Road per day, including 1023 heavy vehicles
Look at a painted Cultural Pole here
Fleurieu Peninsula school children had the chance to build their knowledge of Kaurna culture and leave a legacy on the Main South Road Duplication project.
Children from four primary schools have been designing and painting large cultural poles featuring symbols from traditional Kaurna culture. The following schools were involved: Port Noarlunga Primary School, Old Noarlunga Primary School, Seaford Rise Primary School, and All Saints Primary School in Seaford.
The cultural poles will be placed at rest nodes that will be created for cyclists and walkers along new Shared Use Path running alongside Main South Road.
This program is being run by a local Kaurna artist from Aboriginal Urban Design, a company that specialises in integrating Traditional Owner philosophy into major infrastructure and transport projects.
Participating children initially learnt about Kaurna artistic symbols and stories, and how to grind and mix ochre paint. These skills were then used create the cultural poles, which locals are visitors will be able to see on the Shared Use Path.
This project is a celebration of Kaurna culture and reconciliation, and an opportunity to create a sense of belonging for the children that were involved.
Each rest node will tell a story of the Kaurna culture in that particular area, and will include other art elements such as carvings, seats, gravel paving, interpretive signage and sculptures.
The rest areas complement the larger art pieces that will feature on overpasses and other structures that carry themes of fishing and the sea, which are significant to the Kaurna Story in the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Visitors to the area will see depictions of traditional activities such as netting, and fishing, and local aquatic species such as sharks and butterfish.
Seating will provide a spot for visitors to contemplate the Kaurna culture and country that is around them and its continuing significance today.
The cultural poles project is part of the broader Kaurna Indigenous Urban Art strategy for the Main South Road and Victor Harbor Road Stage 1 Duplication projects.
Look at the Victor Harbor roundabout here
It’s been full steam ahead on the Victor Harbor Road Duplication and this project is now almost 70% complete.
This major project is a full duplication of the section of Victor Harbor Road from Main South Road to before the turn-off to McLaren Vale.
The halfway mark of the project in February came with a nod to the proud, local winegrowing community. The asphalt placed on the road was made with a percentage of recycled wine bottles.
Traffic switched onto this new surface in February while construction started on the western side of the road.
By June, the Victor Harbor Road team from SA company McMahon’s and sub-alliance partner of the Fleurieu Connections Alliance had recorded 107,000 workforce hours without a significant incident.
The next major milestone for this project will be the opening of the new roundabout, which realigns Quarry Road with Robinson Road. The roundabout will feature two traffic lanes in both northbound and southbound directions and a dual lane circular carriageway.
Quarry Road will reopen up to the Pistol Club once the roundabout opens with the remainder of Quarry Road closed until the end of the year.
Other upcoming works include the completion of asphalting on the northbound carriageway and its anticipated opening to traffic in August/September.
Tie-ins works have also been undertaken for roads that intersect with Victor Harbor Road, including Noarlunga Avenue, Ostrich Farm Road and Budgens Road.
All upgrade works for Victor Harbor Road are anticipated to be complete by the end of 2023, and dual highway will be fully open to traffic.
By its completion, around 230,000m2 of road pavement will have been laid, incorporating 35,000 tonnes of asphalt.
The new road will provide improved travel time and safety for the 26,000 vehicles and 1,560 heavy vehicles that use this road daily
The new Pedler Creek bridge on Main South Road at Seaford Heights is taking shape and some serious machinery has been brought in to put the huge support elements into place.
May and June have seen the installation of the pre-cast concrete super-T bridge beams, each weighing up to 64 tonnes. The super-Ts provide the link between the bridge columns and the base for the bridge deck that vehicles drive on, which will be poured over the top.
Each of these concrete beams is 20-35 metres long. They have been poured off-site at Adelaide contractor Bianco Precast and were trucked to the site in the early mornings and outside of peak times during the day.
Two cranes have different jobs in bringing the bridge structure together. A 400-tonne mobile crane, operated by local company Fleurieu Cranes, is installing the super-ts on the southern end of the new bridge.
Meanwhile, a 600-tonne crawler crane from New South Wales has been situated either side of the creek to install beams from there.
The larger crane is hard to miss, standing at approximately 80 metres high with a 78-metre boom. A total of 38 trucks of equipment travelled over with the crane components and it took about a week to assemble this giant crane.
The team has been carefully installing 3-4 beams per day as weather permits and the next stage will be to pour the deck in the coming months.
The new Pedler Creek bridge will replace a previous two-lane bridge at the Seaford Heights site. It is anticipated that the new four-lane bridge, including a shared use path for walkers and cyclists, will be open to traffic in late 2023.
