Adelaide-Crafers Highway
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| Adelaide-Crafers Highway | |
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| General direction | West-East |
| From |  Glen Osmond Road (Princes Highway), Glen Osmond, Adelaide |
| via | Mt. Osmond |
| To |  South Eastern Freeway, Crafers, Adelaide |
| Major Junctions |  Cross Road Portrush RoadMount Barker Road (Princes Highway) |
The Adelaide-Crafers Highway is a 10 kilometre freeway-grade road linking Adelaide to Crafers in the Adelaide hills, and continuing from Crafers as the South Eastern Freeway. The highway is ten kilometres long, including 500 metre long twin-tube tunnels (the Heysen Tunnels), the first of their kind on the National Highway. It is designated as the M1
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[edit] History
The Adelaide-Crafers Highway came as a much-needed upgrade and replacement to the previous link road, the Mount Barker Road[1], which had been contoured to the Adelaide Hills, giving rise to many steep turns, ascending a tortuous route. The tightest hairpin turn on the Mount Barker Road became infamous as 'the Devils Elbow', often the site of car and semi-trailer accidents.
On May 16, 1995 Prime Minister Paul Keating announced the construction of the new freeway. The Heysen Tunnels, named after well-known South Australian artist and benefactor Hans Heysen, were completed in 1998. Construction was completed early 2000 and on 5 May 2000 Prime Minister John Howard opened the new road.[2] It was the largest South Australian road project, costing a total of A$151 million, wholly funded by the Australian Federal Government.
[edit] Structure
The Adelaide-Crafers Highway features 6 lanes of traffic, arrester beds, concrete median barriers, with street lighting through all 10 km.
[edit] Exits and Intersections
Adelaide-Crafers Highway  |
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| Eastbound exits | Distance from South Eastern Fwy (km) |
Distance from Glen Osmond Road (km) |
Westbound exits |
Start Adelaide-Crafers Highway  from intersection of Portrush Road  ,Glen Osmond Road  & Cross Road  |
10 | 0 | End Adelaide-Crafers Highway at intersection of Portrush Road ,Glen Osmond Road & Cross Road |
| Mount Osmond Mount Osmond Road |
-- | -- | Mount Osmond Mount Osmond Road |
| Eagle on the Hill Devil's Elbow Mount Barker Road |
-- | -- | no exit |
| HEYSEN TUNNEL Up Track no exit |
-- | -- | HEYSEN TUNNEL Down Track no exit |
| no exit | -- | -- | Eagle on the Hill Mount Barker Road |
| End Adelaide-Crafers Highway continues as South Eastern Freeway  |
0 | 10 | Start Adelaide-Crafers Highway continues from South Eastern Freeway |
[edit] Road safety
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[citation needed]. While the previous Mount Barker Road was a notorious stretch, its dangers were well known - the new freeway presented the new challenge of a sustained continuous gradient. Heavy vehicles with inadequate braking found it hard to slow down once they had exceeded a certain speed. 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 20-30km/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.
[edit] Gallery
 The highway viewed from the ridge near the eastern portal of the Heysen Tunnels |
 Portal of the Heysen tunnel on the revamped freeway |
 Driving towards Murray Bridge on Adelaide-Crafers Highway |
 Adelaide-Crafers Highway on a foggy day |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Old and New Road Names. City of Burnside (8 March 2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
- ^ The Adelaide Crafers Highway Project. Government of South Australia, Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (13 August 2004). Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
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