Mount Johns flood immunity: Alice Springs

The Northern Territory Government allocated funds in the 2015/2016 budget to investigate ways to improve flood immunity in the Mount Johns Valley and Desert Springs areas of Alice Springs.

Currently, when the Todd River floods, residents and businesses in these areas are unable to access the Alice Springs CBD or Stuart Highway, as the Casino (Taffy Pick) causeway and Tuncks Road floodway are closed.

The only available access to the area is through a Power and Water service road that is opened to the public during critical events. This private service road is designed for access to PWC sites only and is not built to Australian Road safety standards.

The investigation identified five technical design options to improve flood immunity, these being:

• a connector road from Stephens Road to Sadadeen Road – direct route
• a connector road from Stephens Road to Sadadeen Road - eastern route
• a connector road from Tuncks Road to Sadadeen Road - via the Power and Water access road
• a high level bridge over the Todd River at Stephens Road
• a high level bridge over the Todd River at Tuncks Road.

Details regarding each of these options are included in the attached map PDF (4.9 MB)

Community consultation outcomes

The Alice Springs community was invited in mid 2016 to provide feedback on the technical design options, before a final preferred option was identified.

Consultation closed on August 2016, and as part of the Mount Johns Flood Immunity Study, five options were reviewed in detail.

The preferred option for flood immunity from both the project team as part of their technical design work, and the community in their feedback, is that a connector road is constructed from Stephens Road to Sadadeen Road.

While no plans are currently in place to commence work on the connector road, the works will be considered within future funding programs.

Sadadeen Connector Road is listed in the Northern Territory Government’s 10 year infrastructure plan as a longer term priority.

To read about information on the options considered and the consultation results, read the detailed fact sheet PDF (271.8 KB).

Contact

For further information, email communications.DIPL@nt.gov.au