COUNCIL should have been discussing the “wider transport network” [‘Life in the slow lane’, May 3] five years ago when it was more worried about populist pandering to a vocal few.
Now, the confected concern about the Gawler East Link Road is just a distraction from Council’s more pressing tasks.
The road is what it is: a residential road built at State Government expense so the developers of the Springwood estate could avoid that inconvenience.
If it were intended as a collector or bypass, it would not have a single-lane chokepoint bridge; it would not have followed an alignment that is carefully designed to maximise the buildable space at the expense of sightlines; and it would not have gutters and medians that are apparently secured with Velcro, so the developers can add new intersections at will.
If Council is serious about an eastern bypass [particularly with the mooted opening of the Concordia estates, and the need to pass traffic from those estates to the Main North Road/Expressway corridor], it should be designating corridors now for future road development, with its eyes on the 2050 traffic paths and not on the 2025 elections.
The space is there now, and the price [financial and political] of land resumption will skyrocket as more houses are built in the available land.
Council should stop wasting time on its previous and plan ahead honestly.
Scott Davidson, Gawler East
