Darlington Upgrade Project officially opens on Saturday with full speed in all lanes

After many years of development and some serious setbacks, the Darlington upgrade will finally open at full speed for all sections on Saturday.

Motorists in the southern suburbs will slash daily travel times with the opening of the Darlington Upgrade Project.

The $620m project that includes a non-stop motorway underneath Flinders Drive and Sturt Road will open Saturday.

All lanes will open to traffic without restrictions including the lowered motorway and the speed limit will increase to 80km/h between the Southern Expressway and Ayliffes Road.

An embarrassing wall collapse, between Sturt Road and Flinders Drive, that had pushed back the opening of the project by months, has also been rectified.

The completed motorway will be used by 73,000 motorists every day.

New Infrastructure and Transport Minister Corey Wingard said the project will be used by 73,000 motorists daily.

“They’ll now be able to get where they’re going faster,” Mr Wingard said.

Federal Boothby MP Nicolle Flint said it will provide better access to Flinders Medical and Flinders University.

The lowered motorway has been progressively opened to traffic from 2019.

Mr Wingard also announced that major works have officially started on the South Eastern Freeway to convert an existing emergency lane into third full-time travel lane.

The finished Darlington South Road upgrade.

The project will put additional lanes on the city bound and outbound carriageways between Crafers and Stirling to improve traffic flow for around 54,000 vehicles that use this section of the freeway each day.

It forms part of a $12.9 billion transport infrastructure investment.

Mr Wingard said main works were expected to be completed by the end of the year, with testing and commissioning to take place in early 2021.