Berrimah Road is a major arterial road in the outer eastern suburbs of
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin ( ; Larrakia: ) is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With an estimated population of 147,255 as of 2019, the city contains the majority of the residents of the sparsely populated Northern Territory.
It is the smalle ...
Australia. The road provides an important transport corridor to access the port facilities at
East Arm as well as the northernmost passenger and freight terminals on the
Adelaide-Darwin railway. It has undergone recent upgrades as part of the
Tiger Brennan Drive extension works between 2009 and 2012. Berrimah Road is used by approximately 4000 vehicles per day, including a large proportion of heavy trucks and this number is expected to increase significantly with the growth of the port activities
There are major junctions controlled by traffic lights at
Tiger Brennan Drive and Wishart Road, as well as a public
weighbridge
A truck scale (US), weighbridge (non-US) or railroad scale is a large set of scales, usually mounted permanently on a concrete foundation, that is used to weigh entire rail or road vehicles and their contents. By weighing the vehicle both emp ...
used by trucks entering and exiting the industrial precinct at the southern end.
History
Berrimah Road follows the alignment of a 19th-century track that linked a quarantine station at East Arm to Fred's Pass Road, the main thoroughfare south of Darwin prior to the construction of the
Stuart Highway. In 1941, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
a major field hospital named "Berrimah" was located on the present site of
Kormilda College
Haileybury Rendall School is an Independent school, independent Mixed-sex education, co-educational Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primary and Secondary school, secondary day school located in the suburb of , in the Norther ...
, at the northern end of Berrimah Road. The hospital site was bombed during Japanese
air raids on 19 February 1942, and was subsequently relocated inland to
Adelaide River, however by this time the name Berrimah Road was in common use for the quarantine station track. The name was officially gazetted in September 1952.
The road has been significantly upgraded since the opening of East Arm Port in 2000.
Upgrade works
Work commenced on the East Arm Port Access Route project commenced in January 2008, the first stage of which involved the duplication of Berrimah Road between Tiger Brennan Drive and Wishart Road, already a busy alternative route for traffic from
Palmerston Palmerston may refer to:
People
* Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer
* Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston
** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman and ...
, at a cost of $6.5 million. This work was completed in 2009.
The final stage of the East Arm Port Access Route project involved the construction of an overpass to replace a
level crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...
as the road enters a business park precinct surrounding the railway yard and terminals. Due to the length of trains using the transcontinental railway line, shunting movements had previously caused the road to be blocked for long periods, restricting traffic access to the businesses and port. The project involved constructing a four lane, dual carriageway overpass with sufficient clearances to allow
double-stacked intermodal freight trains. The upper deck of the overpass is designed for loads up to . Some 70,000 cubic metres of fill used in construction was taken from a blast cutting created as part of stage two works on the Tiger Brennan Drive extension
The overpass works were completed in 2012.
See also
References
{{coord, 12, 27, 25.80, S, 130, 55, 25.10, E, region:AU-NT, display=title
Roads in Darwin, Northern Territory