Federal Government chips in $7 million to allow construction of new intermodal terminal in South Australia
By Anna Game-Lopata | June 21, 2013
The Federal Government will contribute $7 million to a new intermodal freight export precinct at Penfield in South Australia.
Known as the Penfield Project, the $16.3 million
collaborative venture has been driven by the Australasian Railway Association (ARA), logistics provider SCT Group and the City of Playford.
It was contingent on
a $7 million grant from the Regional Development Australia Fund (RDAF), today
confirmed by Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Anthony Albanese.
Minister Albanese says Adelaide not only generates significant amounts of intermodal freight in its own right, but also functions as an important marshalling and freight consolidation point between Melbourne and Perth.
“Boosting rail freight’s role in moving goods through South Australia will improve the state’s productivity and provide better access for industry to key markets on the eastern and western seaboards,” Albanese says.
“It will connect the state’s wine, food processing, mining and manufacturing sectors with new export markets.”
“The new intermodal will also make the state a much more attractive place to invest, providing opportunities for other national and regional distribution centres to be located on site in Adelaide,” he says.
With the money coming through, SCT Group Managing Director Geoff Smith
is keen to make
the
terminal SCT’s major operational site in South Australia and central Australia.
“The project involves essential capital investment to overcome a number of bottlenecks which impede the current ability of the Penfield Freight Precinct,” Smith says.
“Overcoming these bottlenecks will enable the expansion of freight movement in the area and provide considerable and ongoing benefits to organisations in the northern Adelaide region.”
ARA CEO Bryan Nye adds the Penfield Project will provide crucial transportation and freight infrastructure connecting regional South Australia with major rail transport points including Port Adelaide.
“The project will boost jobs for the surrounding regions as well as considerably improve community amenity through a significant reduction of trucks on local roads,” Nye says.
Nye claims the average freight train takes 110 trucks off the road, reducing truck movements by around 49.7 million truck kilometres a year.
“Intermodal hubs like this are crucial projects that add economic efficiencies to our supply chains,” Nye says.
“Quite simply they allow everything from our groceries to our household goods to be delivered to us far cheaper, thereby reducing the end cost.”
The Penfield Project is expected to enable greater productivity and efficiency for freight in South Australia with the capacity to store up to 30,000 containers annually, facilitating the movement of an additional 750,000 payload tonnes of freight annually.
The infrastructure will also lay the foundations for further investment at the site and in the surrounding area and will assist to draw other major retail and manufacturing organisations to northern Adelaide.
Works on the precinct will commence immediately with the project scheduled for completion by end 2016.
Key features of the $16.3 million intermodal freight terminal include:
- Rail container area expansion with capacity to store 30,000 containers and an additional 750,000 payload tonnes of freight;
- 1km rail track;
- Road infrastructure to enable access to B Double trucks at the site;
- Support infrastructure, including an electrical substation, relocation of a fibre optical cable and work to support a gas pipeline; and
- Drainage and storm water infrastructure to support further investment
South Australia’s freight task is expected to almost double by 2030.