Adelaide-Crafers Highway

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Adelaide-Crafers Highway

Length	10 kilometres
General direction:	West-East
From:	Glen Osmond, Adelaide
To:	Crafers, Adelaide
Towns along highway:	Mt. Osmond

The Adelaide-Crafers Highway is a freeway-grade road leading through the Adelaide hills, linking the city of Adelaide with the South Eastern Freeway. It is the largest road project South Australia has ever undertaken, costing a total of A$151 million, which was wholly funded by the Australian Federal Government. The freeway incorporates twin-tube tunnels, the first of its kind on the National Highway. The length of the freeway is 10 km, 500 metres of which are the Heysen Tunnels. It is designated as the M1

The highway viewed from the ridge near the eastern portal of the Heysen Tunnels.

The Adelaide-Crafers Highway came as a much-needed upgrade and replacement to Mount Barker Road, which ascended the Adelaide Hills making it a dangerous and slow route. The notorious Devils Elbow was the site of many accidents. Mount Barker Road could not support a lot of traffic volume, as most of it was windy and 2-laned. On May 16th, 1995 Prime Minister Paul Keating announced the construction of the new freeway. Construction was completed early 2000 and on the 5th of May 2000 Prime Minister John Howard opened the new road.

The freeway features 6 lanes of traffic, three on each side, arrester beds, concrete median barriers, street lighting through all 10 km and above all, a shorter and easier route through the hills.

Driving towards Murray Bridge on Adelaide-Crafers Highway

The South Eastern Freeway originally commenced east of Eagle On The Hill, a well-known Adelaide landmark township consisting of a lookout, hotel and three petrol stations. The remaining portion of the link to metropolitan Adelaide, known as Mount Barker Road, had not been upgraded. Although a dual carriageway, its alignment followed the original Mount Barker Road, constructed in the early 1960s. This 5 km section comprised hairpins, switchbacks and the notorious "Devils Elbow" which resulted in countless overturned semi-trailers. This section of road was a blight on the freeway itself; the freeway commenced several kilometres from the city and the arterial roads leading to the freeway were a constant cause of congestion and accidents.

Several proposals to upgrade Mount Barker Road to freeway status were developed in the 1980s, but funding difficulties saw these shelved. The most favoured proposal was resurrected in 1995; funding was obtained and construction of the Adelaide-Crafers Freeway commenced in 1997. The Heysen Tunnels, named after well-known South Australian artist and benefactor Hans Heysen, were completed in 1998 and bypass the steep, twisty gradient of Mount Barker Road. The freeway extension project was a substantial undertaking for a relatively small city and State, given the extensive bypass and temporary roadworks that were required, as the upgraded freeway replaced large sections of the existing Mount Barker Road.

[edit] Road safety

Portal of the Heysen tunnel on the revamped freeway

Shortly after the Adelaide-Crafers Freeway opened, several incidents involving semi-trailers drew media attention to the road: particularly after a high-profile media identity was involved in a near-fatal accident with a semi-trailer. The previous Mount Barker Road was a notorious stretch but its dangers were well known; the new freeway appeared to be much safer, and indeed was - except for the major disadvantage of its constant gradient. Heavy vehicles with inadequate braking found it hard to slow down once they had exceeded a certain speed, due to the lack of varying gradients. It took some time, and the addition of several warning signs prior to the descent, for heavy vehicles to become familiar with the freeway's characteristics. Semi-trailers can been seen travelling as slow as 60km/h downhill. In 2005 changeable electronic road signs were installed every 200 metres, so that the speed limit of the road can be adjusted from Transport SA headquarters in Adelaide. This has both improved safety for commuters, and emergency service workers like the Country Fire Service.

A proposal to move a series of small huts containing road signs and traffic cones from the old Eagle on the Hill road to the new highway is being considered. As of March 2006 the fire services are being called to motor vehicle accidents on the highway an average of once every ten days, although many more minor accidents do occur.