A new rest area with five heavy vehicle parking bays, a unisex toilet block, a metal shade structure and picnic facilities has opened to truckies in South Australia.
The Salt Creek Heavy Vehicle Rest Area along the Princes Highway is located near the township of Salt Creek and is accessible to drivers travelling east bound, towards Robe – giving truck drivers in the state’s south east a place to stop, rest and check their loads.
Jointly funded on an 80:20 basis by the by the Australian and South Australian governments, the $3.8 million project is part of the Heavy Vehicle Rest Area initiative, through the Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program.
According to SA’s Department for Infrastructure and Transport, the location was selected to meet rest area spacing requirements and design guidelines for safe vehicle access and egress, while minimising impacts on adjacent properties and areas of high environmental and cultural significance within the Coorong region.
“This project is an investment in the wellbeing of the hard-working truck drivers who now have a safe space to stop when travelling east bound along Princes Highway,” said a Department for Infrastructure and Transport spokesperson
“Rest areas play a vital role helping heavy vehicle drivers manage fatigue, increasing productivity and keeping freight safely on the move.
“This new rest area at Salt Creek will deliver long-term safety improvements for all road users, while driving regional economic growth and freight efficiencies across the state’s south east.”
On average, around 1200 vehicles travel along Princes Highway near Salt Creek each day, including over 200 heavy vehicles.
During the 2020 to 2024 five-year period, there were 49 reported crashes on the Princes Highway between Meningie and Kingston, including two serious injury crashes.
The new rest area follows the completion of infrastructure upgrades last year on the Princes Highway, from Meningie to the South Australian/Victorian border, aiming to improve long-term safety and efficiency for all road users.
These upgrades were part of the $186.3 million Princes Highway Corridor upgrade project jointly funded (80:20) by the Australian and South Australian governments.
This project delivered a range of road upgrades, including road surface rehabilitation, overtaking lanes, shoulder sealing, intersection upgrades, roundabout upgrades rest areas, culvert upgrades, installation of safety barriers, Audio Tactile Line Marking and new signage.
Why on earth did this cost 3.8m?
Money laundering, its that simple.
Bribery graft and corruption
It’s just a bit of paving and a very simple toilet block
Wonder who’s getting the kickback
Wow $3.8 million that’s 760 ,000 per truck bay. For just 5 parking areas. Bloody hell. Over 200 trucks use this road each day.
3.8m for a picnic table, a metal roof, some concreting and a twin toilet block. Yep, money under the table!!!!
Someone made some big money on this job.
I would like to see the actual costings.
Was this a CFMEU job.
Unisex toilets- are you kidding? The few female drivers need their privacy. Unisex toilets toilets are garbage.
Take the sign off.
all toilets should be unisex – less waiting times
3.8 million dollars for a bit of concrete and a little toilet
wtf
is the toilet made out pure gold
actually for 3.8 million you could have built a 15 room motel!!!! SOMEONE IS ON THE TAKE
Consideration of the large asphalt area it would be easy to spend that much, a much needed stop for our hard-working truckies, ( of both genders).
well done
This is corruption, state sanctioned fraud in my opinion. All levels of government need a reset in what money is worth. This is definitely not value for money. Whoever signed it off needs to be removed from that position as they are sentencing our children to a life of government debt.
what a joke
No food shop!
Thats also missing…
looks like 13 of the 14 commentators thought the same thing I thought when I first saw this “build”. Now my comment makes it 14 from 15. A thumbs down of over 99%. This beggars belief.
I know that the examples I give below aren’t road transport. However, I’ve always used this ‘back of an envelope’ calculation for the true cost of government projects. Whatever financial units are involved (hundreds of thousands, millions, billions) use the following procedure: take the government’s ‘rose-coloured-glasses’ estimate of cost, double it, and add one unit. So, if the government’s figure is, say, $1.5billion (the units being billions) double the figure given = $3billion, and add one unit ($1billion). Thus, for a government-estimated cost of $1.5billion, the eventual cost is more likely to be $4billion. If you apply this calculation to the AUKUS submarine programme (with units of 100’s of billions of $’s); the real cost will be something like ($385billion x 2) + $100billion = $870billion! As Peter mentions (above) that’s a phenomenally huge debt to put on our children’s and grand-children’s shoulders!