Residents and business owners along Adelaide’s South Road say they have been shocked to learn their properties will be bulldozed for the final stage of the North-South Motorway.

Key points:

  • The SA government is building a road tunnel through Adelaide’s south
  • It has revealed the first properties which will be acquired for tunnelling works
  • Some of the owners say they have not been contacted about it

The South Australian government has revealed the southern entry and exit points for a tunnel in the section between Darlington and the Glenelg tramline.

Dozens of homes and businesses in the Clovelly Park area will have to be cleared to allow tunnel operations to begin.

“This is where the tunnel boring machines will be launched from for the southern tunnel, some four kilometres,” Transport Minister Corey Wingard said.

Mr Wingard said the final design would be completed later this year and the community was being consulted.

Sam Stanton, who owns a business called Studio360 Cycle, only learnt through the media that his spin-cycling gym would be affected.

“About six months ago, there was something slipped under the door about the possibility, but we didn’t realise we were in the section that was going to go,” he said.

The building Sam Stanton’s business operates from is set to be demolished.(

ABC News: Stacey Lee

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‘Great lengths’ to contact those affected 

Stephen Monkhouse, who has lived at his Clovelly Park property for five years, thought his house would be safe because the project was now using tunnels.

He said he also was not told his home would be demolished.

“It’s all news to me. Very surprised, very shocked I suppose,” he said.

“Now we’ve got to try and find somewhere else. Where are we going to go?”

Mr Wingard said the government had been trying to contact all owners over the past few weeks.

“We are reaching out through every avenue we have to contact people. We have been knocking on doors and we have been speaking but people aren’t always home,” he said.

“We’ve been going to great lengths and we will continue to do that.”

An extra $1 billion was allocated for the completion of the North-South Corridor in last month’s state budget.(

Supplied: SA Department of Infrastructure and Transport

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Mr Wingard said the hybrid-plus design meant about 60 per cent of the project would be tunnels and about 390 properties would be compulsorily acquired.

The government has not revealed which other properties will be bought. 

Construction on the 10.5km section between the River Torrens and Darlington is due to begin in 2023, with completion planned for 2028.

The government said it would reduce travel times in Adelaide by up to 24 minutes.

It announced last month in the state budget that the project had ballooned by $1 billion to $9.9 billion to include three lanes each way rather than two.

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