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.

Structure

The Adelaide-Crafers Highway features 6 lanes of traffic, arrester beds, concrete median barriers, with street lighting through all 10 km.

Exits and Intersections

Adelaide-Crafers Highway
Princes Highway
Eastbound exits
or Intersections Distance from
South Eastern Freeway
(km) Distance from
Glen Osmond Road
(km) Westbound exits
or Intersections
Start Adelaide-Crafers Highway
from Glen Osmond Road 10 0 End Adelaide-Crafers Highway
continues as Glen Osmond Road
to Adelaide
Glen Osmond
Portrush Road

Cross Road
Glen Osmond
Portrush Road

Cross Road

Mount Osmond
Mount Osmond Road
8 2 Mount Osmond
Mount Osmond Road

Eagle on the Hill
Devil's Elbow
Mount Barker Road
6 -- no exit
HEYSEN TUNNEL
Up Track -- -- HEYSEN TUNNEL
Down Track
no exit 0 10 Eagle on the Hill
Mount Barker Road

End Adelaide-Crafers Highway
continues as South Eastern Freeway
to Murray Bridge / Melbourne Start Adelaide-Crafers Highway
from South Eastern Freeway

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.

Gallery

See also

• South Eastern Freeway
• Highways in Australia
• List of highways in South Australia
• Freeways in Australia
• Freeways in South Australia

References

1. ^ "Old and New Road Names". City of Burnside (8 March 2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
2. ^ "The Adelaide Crafers Highway Project". Government of South Australia, Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (13 August 2004). Retrieved on 2007-07-14.

Road Infrastructure in Adelaide
Freeways: