Adelaide’s biggest road project, the Northern Connector, set to open this weekend
The city’s biggest road project is set to officially open this weekend, opening up SA’s most popular tourism destinations to thousands of visitors.
SA News
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Adelaide’s largest road project, providing a commuter link between the Northern Expressway, South Road Superway and Port River Expressway, will open for the long weekend.
The $867 million Northern Connector will open on Saturday morning, catering to thousands of visitors who are expected to head from Adelaide to tourism and holiday hot spots.
It will have three new lanes in each direction and offer drivers the opportunity to bypass the traffic on the existing route along Port Wakefield Road and Salisbury Highway.
The opening will come as a relief to motorists in the northern suburbs who have been waiting for the project to be completed for almost four months.
Infrastructure Minister Stephan Knoll announced in December, the same month the road was set to be opened, that the project would be delayed by three months.
At the time Mr Knoll said the project had been a difficult engineering project.
“Building a road over a swamp isn’t easy. There have been some technical reasons why it has taken the time it has but we had to get the job done right,” he said.
Mr Knoll said the motorway would have a speed limit of 80km/h for the first few weeks.
The Southern Interchange will be reduced to 60km/h for driver safety.
Its opening comes at an important time for Premier Steven Marshall and the State Government, who are facing a significant downturn in tourism following bushfires and the coronavirus outbreak, and facing increasing pressure on future infrastructure spends.
Mr Marshall said the project would help drive tourism and jobs in the northern regions - including the Barossa, Riverland, Yorke Peninsula and Mid North.
Federal Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge said it would be a game-changer for South Australian motorists.
“This project is the next piece in the 78km North-South Corridor that will connect the South Road Superway and Northern Expressway,” Mr Tudge said.