Regional & Remote Road Maintenance

SACOME calls on the State Government to continue prioritising maintenance funding for regional and remote roads critical to the operation of South Australian resource projects.

South Australia has a road network comprising some 10,000 km of road. SACOME believes that the maintenance and upgrade of these roads must be assessed in such a manner that considers their economic value to the State, rather than the use of a simple metric that quantifies vehicle movements.

While road maintenance is of paramount importance to safe movement of resources across the State it also impacts freight operators, pastoralists and tourists using regional and remote roads.

InfrastructureSA’s inaugural 20-Year State Infrastructure Strategy published in 2020 stated that the estimated road maintenance backlog was $780 million and growing by $100 million per year. It also found that South Australia spends proportionately less on road maintenance compared to New South Wales and Western Australia.

SACOME continues to call for the implementation of a four-year road maintenance fund of at least $600 million to reduce the backlog of road maintenance across South Australia’s road network.

The 2023 State Budget allocated $350 million over four years leaving a significant funding deficit for maintenance, further compounding the exponential growth of the South Australia’s road maintenance backlog.

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