Jack Hudson

A $5.1 MILLION upgrade of the dangerous Stebonheath-Womma roads intersection at Edinburgh North has been completed, with road users now able to use a new roundabout.

Playford Council Deputy Mayor Peter Rentoulis said he was particularly happy with the result, having started an online petition to improve the intersection in 2018.

“It called for a roundabout at this particular intersection, which was a problem intersection,” he said.

“Quite a few accidents have occurred there, some very serious injuries.

“This is something that the community has been calling for, for a long time in terms of solution.

“I got together with Sonja (Taylor), who at the time was running for SA Best at the state election, and we decided that was a good local issue for her to run on.

“At the same time, it was beneficial to the local community.”

Mr Rentoulis said when he started the petition, Ms Taylor was “a co-author; she was with the online petition”.

“It (the petition) just got a life of its own, and it literally just went viral within days, weeks – from zero to 3000-3500,” he said.

“Over the next period, I got quite a few other people involved and predominantly, again, Sonja, and Shaun Reardon, who at the time was running for council as an elected member.

“He played a pretty significant role with me and a few others in going to the local shopping centres and raising public awareness.

“I eventually lodged with about 5500 signatures with the council and with the State Government as an official petition.”

Speaking to The Bunyip at the roundabout on Friday, Mr Rentoulis said he was delighted to see it finished.

“It is now the fruition of our works, which is fantastic to see,” he said. “People coming through in a co-ordinated fashion, in a safe fashion, you can still see there’s a lot of traffic coming through and it’s just safe.

“That’s what you call rallying, getting behind something and people power having its effect.”