South Road, Adelaide

South Road (route A13, B23) is a major north–south conduit in Adelaide, South Australia. Also known as Main South Road, it is Adelaide's most important arterial road.

Route

South Road carries much of the road traffic from the southern suburbs towards the Adelaide city centre. This traffic completes its journey to the city centre via Anzac Highway.

From Anzac Hwy, South Road continues north as a western bypass of the city across many arterials, the major ones being Port Road, Regency Road and Grand Junction Road, to the junctions with the Port River Expressway and the Salisbury Highway. Until the Port River Expressway opened in 2005, the sections of South Road and Salisbury Highway between Grand Junction Road and Port Wakefield Road were known as the South Road Extension, built in the early 1990s.

To the south of Anzac Hwy, the name changes to Main South Road at the intersection of Ayliffes and Shepherds Hill Roads at Clovelly Park, and continues past McLaren Vale (where the Victor Harbor road branches off) and runs parallel to the west coast of Fleurieu Peninsula all the way to Cape Jervis at its southern tip. The town of Old Noarlunga, South Australia was bypassed in 1978.^[1] The fully reversible Southern Expressway (M2) runs roughly parallel to South Road for 18 km from Darlington to Noarlunga and carries through traffic to reduce peak congestion.

Congestion and upgrades

South Road suffers from traffic congestion due to its importance as Adelaide's main arterial road. Traffic has also increased in line with the growth and development of Adelaide's southern suburbs.

An overpass was built over Cross Road and the train line between 1982 and 1984 to reduce a major bottleneck.

The current Labor state government has completed an underpass at Anzac Highway, and an overpass of the Adelaide-Glenelg Tram, in 2009 and 2010. The underpass model used is a diamond interchange. Further plans exist to construct a tunnel under Grange Road, Port Road and the Outer Harbor–Grange railway line to further reduce congestion.

In November 2005, the Royal Automobile Association (RAA) released their recommendations to the South Australian government in regards to the road network. South Road was found to be the poorest road in the state, registering a 2/10 on the RAA's scale. The recommendations given included $6 billion of funds to upgrade the roads of South Australia – with $1.5–2 billion to be spent on South Road alone. The RAA's plan for the road included a 6 km tunnel from Port Road all the way to the Anzac Highway underpass and over/underpasses at six other major intersections and two rail crossings. ^PDF

On 18 August 2007, the then Prime Minister John Howard announced that South Road was to be included in the AusLink National Road Network, and also pledged $1 billion in funding for the project between 2007 and 2020.^[2]

In October 2009, both the Premier of South Australia and the Prime Minister of Australia released plans for the South Road Superway- a 3–4 km section of elevated freeway running from the Port River Expressway to the intersection of Regency Road at a cost of $800million. The project is expected to start in 2010 and be completed by 2014. The elevated part will avoid crossing Grand Junction, Cormack Roads, and the Port Adelaide-Dry Creek railway. Unfortunately, this will duplicate what is already one of the best parts of South road, (3 lanes each direction), while other parts remain in urgent need of an upgrade, (between Port and Regency roads, for example).

Major intersections (north–south)

Gallery

See also

• Highways in Australia
• List of highways in South Australia
• Metropolitan Adelaide Transport Study

References