Game on: govt consultation meets the X-Box
The State Government is hoping a games console holds the key to easing community concerns about its Torrens-to-Torrens South Road upgrade.
The project, which will include a submerged section of road, a rail-line elevated eight metres from the road surface and the demolition of 140 properties, will profoundly change the neighbourhood for many nearby residents.
To give the community the chance to understand the changes more completely, the South Road project team have incorporated a games console into an immersive 3.D computer-generated environment covering the entire road corridor to be upgraded.
Locals can go to the project office, on the corner of South and Torrens roads, and “play”, using a games controller to explore the proposed new environment.
You can “walk” along the streets, and even climb the stairs to the railway station platform and watch the trains rush by.
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You can “drive” along the new South Road and the side streets, or you can “fly” over the top – something Infrastructure and Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis calls “Neo” mode, in a nod to sci-fi film The Matrix.
Koutsantonis told InDaily the technology was designed to ease people’s concerns about the $896 million project.
“When you’re retrofitting infrastructure amongst established suburbs, anxiety levels go up and that’s completely appropriate,” he said.
“People are entitled to be anxious about what’s going to happen.
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“Everyone here accepts that this road needs to be upgraded: I don’t think there’s a person here who thinks it’s working fine as it is.
“But it’s intrusive. We’re knocking houses down, we’re moving people out of their homes, we’re changing traffic flows, we’re opening up streets, we’re doing a lot of work that’s going to be invasive. So whatever we can do to give people as much say and as much confidence about what it’s going to look like when it’s finished the better.”
He said he had been “very unsatisfied” with consultation on other western suburbs road projects that had been done in his electorate when he was a backbencher, and was determined to do better.
“I thought the consultation wasn’t very good, I thought residents weren’t taken seriously and I thought local MPs weren’t listened to. As Transport Minister I want to make sure we do it properly.”
He said the immersive technology meant people could “personalise” their experience with the consultation process.
“In fact all we do is say ‘here’s a photograph’ of what it’s going to look (like). Now what we’re saying is, grab a hold of this console, have a play with it, walk around your streets, walk around where you live – this is what it’s going to look like.
“I think what that does is give people confidence that we’re taking their views seriously. We’re actually understanding what their concerns are through traffic movements and changes to amenity. Ultimately it gives them more ownership of the project.”
The project will upgrade 3.7km of South Road, from Torrens Road to the River Torrens, including a 1.4km section of lowered road and a rail overpass for the Outer Harbor line.
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