North–South Corridor, Adelaide
| North–South Connector South Australia | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| South Road Underpass beneath Anzac Highway | |
| General information | |
| Type | Road |
| Length | 107 km (66 mi) |
| Major junctions | |
| North end |
 Main South Road /Old Noarlunga, Adelaide |
| Bedford Park, Black Forest, Glandore, Angle Park, Globe Derby Park, Bolivar, Waterloo Corner, Virginia, Penfield, Andrews Farm, Angle Vale, Gawler. | |
| South end |
 Sturt Highway, Nuriootpa, South Australia |
The North–South Connector is a route near Adelaide, South Australia that will link southern suburb Old Noarlunga to Nuriootpa, a distance of over 100 km through Metropolitan Adelaide without a single stop by 2030. The route comprises a number of major road links in the metro area, from the Southern Expressway in the south, to South Road, the Northern Connector, the Max Fatchen Expressway and ending with the Sturt Highway in the north.
Road links
By 2030, all of these major road links (listed South–North) are proposed to have been completed, thus making a major route through the Adelaide metropolitan area a much more efficient way to travel. Its expected to take only one hour to travel from Noarlunga in the South to Gawler in the North.
Southern Expressway
The Southern Expressway, 21 km, which originally opened stages 1 and 2 in 1997 and 2001 respectively, as a one way, freeway standard road, which is closed for an hour, twice a day, and reversed its direction to match peak traffic flow; open northwards (towards city) in the morning, and open southwards (away from city) in the afternoon. Duplication of the Expressway began in 2011, with the construction of a second carriageway beginning in late 2011, making the expressway operate in both directions, 24 hours a day. The expressway opened for two-way traffic on 3 August 2014.[1]
The Southern Expressway southern end is at Main South Road, Old Noarlunga. Northbound has free-flowing entry onto the roadway, whereas southbound travellers have a set of traffic lights to exit the expressway. Heading south after the expressway, Victor Harbor can be accessed with 1 additional set of traffic lights, and Cape Jervis is only 3 more sets of lights.
The expressway terminates in the north at Main South Road in Bedford Park, where for both northbound (off expressway) and southbound (onto expressway), this is controlled by traffic lights. The duplication kept this location controlled by lights, but there is planning underway for a Darlington Interchange (see below), which will remove these traffic lights.
South Road
Darlington Interchange
In 2010, it was announced that an interchange would be built in Darlington, to provide better access to the Southern Expressway, as well as Flinders Medical Centre, Sturt Road, Adelaide and Ayliffes Road. This project was the basis for the Southern Expressway getting the go-ahead for duplication, but then in 2011, this project was scrapped, due to budget issues.
The plan was revived in 2014,[2] with early works commencing late in 2014 for an expected completion in 2018.[3]
South Road – Tonsley to Black Forest
Although this section is intended to be upgraded before 2030, there are currently no detailed plans for the area yet. The main issues with this block are the intersection of South and Daws Roads in St Marys and the 5 intersections within less than a kilometre around Castle Plaza in Edwardstown. The rest of this stretch has minor intersections, pedestrian lights and emergency lights outside the CFS station.
Emerson Overpass
Between 1982 and 1984, the Emerson Crossing was built, taking South Road over Cross Road and the Seaford railway line. For a long time, this was the only grade separation on South Road, and one of very few in South Australia, and although it helps to remove congestion with Cross Road traffic and the railway line, it is commonly criticised as the afternoon peak traffic often starts queueing just after the crest of the overpass for the series of lights at Edwardstown, and the lined up cars sometimes cannot be seen until the top of the crest.
Gallipoli Underpass
In 2005, along with the decision to make a free flowing South Road, a decision was made to build an underpass for South Road to go under Anzac Highway. Construction of this started in 2007, and it was to be named the Gallipoli Underpass, in line with the ANZAC theme. The underpass opened in March 2009, and to cut down on delays due to construction, an overpass was also built within the same time frame for the Glenelg Tram line just half a kilometre to the south, which also opened in 2009, significantly removing delays from this area.
South Road – Glandore to Regency Park
This section has within it some of the busiest intersections in Outer Adelaide, as it goes directly past the city. It includes intersections with Henley Beach Road, Sir Donald Bradman Drive, Grange Road, Port Road and Torrens Road, as well as the Outer Harbor Railway Line Crossing. In this 9 km section between the underpass and the start of the Superway, there are 13 signalised intersections, as well as the train crossing, and numerous pedestrian lights. Around 2007, there were plans to construct a tunnel under Grange Road, Port Road and the Outer Harbour line, and construction was to start after the underpass had finished, but these plans were later scrapped. In 2013 the State Labor government in partnership with the Federal Labor government announced an upgrade from Torrens Road to the Torrens River, upgrading approximately 4 km. The upgrade would feature a new, lowered road under Grange and Port Roads. This will provide a non-stop route through the area for passing traffic and reduce delays to east-west travel. A parallel surface road along the length of the lowered road to connect the majority of local roads and arterial roads to South Road as they do now and a rail overpass of South Road for the Outer Harbor line to ensure the service doesn't interrupt traffic along the new route.
North-South Motorway
In 2009, an announcement was made to build an $812million elevated roadway above South Road known as the South Road Superway during construction, from just north of Regency Road to the end of South Road where it joins to the Port River Expressway and Salisbury Highway. The 2.8 km elevated roadway rises just north of Taminga Street, Regency Park and goes over Days Road, before access ramps at Grand Junction Road, then continues over Cormack Road and the Dry Creek railway line to join the intersection of the Port River Expressway, Salisbury Highway and in the future, the Northern Connector. The Motorway opened in early 2014.
Northern Connector
The Northern Connector is another proposed link in the North–South Corridor. It will join to the interchange in Dry Creek with the South Road Superway, Salisbury Highway and Port River Expressway. This interchange will be completely free flowing for all directions, keeping with the free-flowing plan of South Road. The connector will be an alternate route to Port Wakefield Road and the Max Fatchen Expressway, without the traffic light intersections of Port Wakefield Road. It will have interchanges in the suburbs of Globe Derby Park, Bolivar and Waterloo Corner, and connect to the Northern Expressway in Virginia.
Max Fatchen Expressway
The The Max Fatchen Expressway opened in September 2010, as the longest new road project in South Australia for a number of decades. The 4 lane highway extends from Port Wakefield Road, North West through 5 interchanges in Penfield (2 interchanges), Andrews Farm, Angle Vale and Gawler River to where it joins the Sturt Highway just outside of Gawler. Since opening, the Max Fatchen Expressway has had a much lower than predicted patronage, but it's numbers are expected to significantly rise once the Northern Connector is completed.
Sturt Highway
The Sturt Highway continues the North-South Corridor to Nuriootpa as a dual carriageway road with the second carriageway added between 2007 and 2009, providing a total of two lanes in each direction. The Sturt Highway continues beyond Nuriootpa as just one lane each way.
See also
Australian Roads portal
References
- ↑ "Southern Expressway Duplication". Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
- ↑ "Darlington Upgrade Project". Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
- ↑ "What's next". Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. 3 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
- Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (19 September 2012). "Adelaide's north-south corridor". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
