New Causeway Road Bikeway, looking South adjacent to the Glanville Rail Station car park.

1. Causeway Road, Semaphore. This extremely busy designated freight route runs through the middle of Semaphore and Port Adelaide’s residential areas. It features primary schools at both ends, two rail stations with associated pedestrian crossings, a pub and access to several residential streets! It has no on-road bike facilities (no bike lanes, no lowered speed limits etc). Council has long planned a series of linked off-road bike pathways providing continuous bicycle access the full length of Causeway Road. And we’re pleased to now see these facilities in place! The new works include a new protected crossing adjacent to the Glanville Hotel and links to the Semaphore Road bikeways, the Outer Harbor Greenway, the Harbour Loop path and (at the southern end) to Charle Sturt’s off-road pathways along Old Port Road and through to Semaphore Park and West Lakes. These new pathways are a welcome addition to the growing Port Adelaide/Enfield Bike Network!

New Causeway Road Bikeway, looking North adjacent to the Glanville Rail Station car park.

2. Funding Cuts?  Last weeks State Budget papers sneaked in a one-liner (page 124) signalling reductions in ‘… grants provided to local councils for cycling paths’. These few innocuous words seem to suggest a cut to the already very limited State Bicycle Fund, the pool of money administered by DPTI that Port Adelaide/Enfield Council has been relying on to implement its Bike Plan. Needless to say this has raised some concerns about Council’s capacity to continue to implement the Plan over the next two years to 2020 when it is due to conclude. PortBUG will write to the Minister seeking clarification of these ‘reductions’ and his assurance that funding will still be available to Council to assist in implementation of the Bike plan over the next two years!

Future OHGreenway route (behind the wall), Gasworks ‘Retort House’ site, Bowden…

3. Greenway Update:  With the recent opening of the fantastic South Road Overpass (Days Trc, Croydon to Coglin St, Bowden), the Outer Harbour is one (major) step closer to completion! The last remaining step is to complete 150 metres of so of new pathway through the old ‘Retort House’ gasworks site bordered by Chief and East streets at Bowden. This is likely to take quite some time – possibly well into next year – as many heritage, construction and remediation issues will need to be resolved. However DPTI assure us that it will happen – the funding and all necessary planning permissions are in place and it’s (again) just a matter of being patient! Until then the Greenway remains perfectly useable with signposted detours on local streets around the Gasworks site.

4. Hart Street Project:  The redevelopment of Hart Street proceeds apace with the new concrete ‘islands’ in place and the reshaped intersections at Swan Trc and Carlisle Street taking shape. There are new three protected pedestrian crossings between Swann and Carlisle. Motorists seem to be accommodating well to the restriction to one lane in each direction. It will be great when it’s all finished, particularly when the promised new trees and garden plantings are in place.

5. Lady Gowrie Drive at Strathfield Trc:  We’ve been pleased to hear from DPTI that they will be undertaking improvements for bicycle users on Lady Gowrie Drive adjacent to the Strathfield Trc junction. The improvements will include:

• continuation of the bicycle lane on the western (beach) side of Lady Gowrie Drive
• some kerb and drainage works on the eastern side of Lady Gowrie Drive where it intersects with Strathfield Terrace.

This project forms part of the $1.8 million ‘Improving Safety for Vulnerable Road Users Program’ which is funded via DPTI’s annual Asset Improvement Program.

6. PortBUG’s ‘Active Transport Manifesto’:  In the absence of any real policy from either Council or our State Government committing them to Active Transport, the PortBUG has decided that we need to ‘step up’! We’ve drafted an ‘Active Transport Manifesto’ which you can check out here at our web site. It’s very much a work in progress and your feedback and suggestions would be most welcome.