News, Road upgrades, South Australia

First section of Augusta Highway Duplication now open

The first fully completed section of the newly duplicated Augusta Highway is now open.

All four lanes of the nine-kilometre stretch between Port Wakefield and Beaufort are now open to traffic, with two new northbound lanes and two refurbished southbound lanes.

Traffic was previously diverted onto the new duplicated carriageway in each direction earlier this year to enable reconstruction work on the existing two-lane highway to occur – aimed at future-proofing the major freight route by improving steep climbs and ensuring the existing road tied in with the new carriageway.

With these works completed, both sides of the highway – dual, two-lane carriageways between the Port Wakefield Overpass and Beaufort Road – are open.

“This vital upgrade is one of several sections to be improved, which will improve safety, freight productivity and network reliability while also reducing travel times,” said Senator for South Australia Karen Grogan.

More than 300 metres of guardrails have been installed along this key section, in addition to 12 new light poles to increase driver visibility at night.

During construction, 25 stormwater crossings and three culverts were also built underneath the highway to help prevent flooding after a rain event.

While all lanes are now open, some traffic restrictions will still be required while line marking and signage are installed.

The Augusta Highway is the key road corridor between Port Wakefield and Port Augusta and forms part of the National Land Transport Network, providing crucial connectivity to regional South Australia and interstate.

The Augusta Highway Duplication project is part of the $450 million Princes Highway corridor package, jointly funded by the Australian and South Australian governments, on an 80:20 basis.

Once complete, the project will provide dual, two-lane carriageways along a 28 kilometre stretch of the Augusta Highway from Port Wakefield to Lochiel. It is due to finished in 2024.

“This corridor provides crucial connectivity to regional South Australia and interstate and I look forward to seeing the entire duplication project being completed in 2024,” added South Australian Minister for Regional Roads Geoff Brock.

“I urge every South Australian to head into the new year safely by sticking to the speed limits, driving to the conditions, being patient and taking regular breaks.”

1 Comment

  1. Whilst the sections of new road that I have driven on are a huge improvement, we are all already concerned that the existing ‘new surface’ has the usual ‘tram tracks’ worn into the surface, where from the cabin view, through the windscreen, it appears that the stones are pushing into the surface.

    In relation to the two ‘Under Construction’ overtaking lanes basically between Lochiel and Red Hill, well, these have been both almost completely constructed, then left closed, followed by being ripped up and either left at this stage or partly rebuilt back to a stage of job half done. The mobile flood lights that are switched on each & every night create a totally dangerous situation in respect to the brightness of the light that shines towards you as a driver, basically the same as usual oncoming 4WD that can’t fathom how to operate the dipper switch despite having more spotties than most trucks.

    Planning on the duplication of this highway from Lochiel to past the Crystal Brook intersections should have been done & once this first section of road is 100% completed to Lochiel (the north direction over the Hummocks is still to be completed), the duplication of this highway must be commenced heading north, especially due to the high volumes of traffic during seeding & harvest.

    Whilst we would all like dual carriageways everywhere, from a driver’s point of view that traverses this particular road a lot, I personally see this as utmost importance. Ideally, it needs to be fully duplicated right through into Pt Augusta as the new bridges are now open and allowing access for both 3A & B4 combination Road-Trains right through down to Adelaide would both greatly improve the transport industry, it would also assist in reducing costs as so called ‘Dog Runs’ would not be required.

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