Port Wakefield Highway (and its southern section as Port Wakefield Road) is an important

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

n highway, connecting

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

to the

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Strai ...

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a port, seaport, it is now a road traffic and Junction (rail), railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about ...

, northern and western South Australia, the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

and

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is designated National Highway A1 and a part of the National Highway. It is named after

Port Wakefield Port Wakefield may refer to. Australia *Port Wakefield, South Australia, a town and locality * Port Wakefield railway line, part of the now-closed Balaklava-Moonta railway line in South Australia * Port Wakefield Circuit, a former motor racing cir ...

, the first government town north of Adelaide.

Route

Port Wakefield Highway begins at the intersection of Augusta and

Copper Coast Highway Copper Coast Highway is a highway in South Australia which branches off from the Augusta Highway, Augusta and Port Wakefield Highways 2 km north of Port Wakefield, South Australia, Port Wakefield, and heads northwest across the top of Yorke ...

s just north of

, and runs as a four-lane, dual-lane carriageway south to the interchange with the

North–South Motorway The North–South Motorway is a partially complete motorway traversing the inner western suburbs of Adelaide from Waterloo Corner in the north to Bedford Park in the south. Progressively constructed in stages since 2010, once complete it will ...

and

Northern Expressway Northern Expressway, also known as the Fatchen Northern Expressway, is a 21 kilometre long controlled-access highway in Adelaide, South Australia. Since March 2020, the North–South Motorway continues west of Port Wakefield Highway and interse ...

; it changes name to Port Wakefield Road and continues south into Adelaide as a four-lane, dual-carriage road, widening to six lanes at Ryans Road in Parafield Gardens, narrowing back to four lanes at Cavan Road in

Gepps Cross Gepps Cross (pronounced 'Jepps Cross') is a suburb and major road intersection in the north of Adelaide, South Australia. Gepps Cross is traditionally seen as the end of the inner suburbs and the start of the outer northern suburbs, as it was hom ...

, and then ends at

Main North Road Main North Road is the major north-south arterial route through the suburbs north of the Adelaide City Centre in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. It continues north through the settled areas of South Australia and is a total of long, fro ...

a short distance later. The route is dual-carriageway for its entire length to Port Wakefield and bypasses all of the small towns along its former route.

History

The four-span bridge opened in 1926 over the Gawler railway line at

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...

was replaced with two dual carriageway bridges in 1980. At the same time

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and

Two Wells Two Wells is a town approximately north of the Adelaide city centre in South Australia adjacent to Port Wakefield Road and passed by the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line. The first settlers in the area used two aboriginal wells in the area a ...

were bypassed. In 2011 an upgrade including road widening of nine kilometres of Port Wakefield Road between

Salisbury Highway Salisbury Highway (and its northern section as John Rice Avenue) is a 15 kilometre major connecting road in the northern suburbs of the Adelaide metropolitan area. It is designated part of route A9. Route Salisbury Highway starts at the interch ...

and Waterloo Corner Road was completed as part of the

project. Historically, the whole route was named Port Wakefield Road, however following the opening of the

, the route from Port Wakefield south to that junction in Waterloo Corner was renamed Port Wakefield Highway. In February 2020, the northbound ramp from Port Wakefield Road to the Northern Expressway was closed permanently as part of the final stages of opening the Northern Connector, the project name at the time for the northernmost part of the

. Northbound traffic to the Northern Expressway needs to use an earlier entrance to the North–South Motorway or join the Northern Expressway later via Waterloo Corner Road and Heaslip Road. The original bypass of Port Wakefield has become built up with roadhouses and other businesses, leading to calls to build a new bypass further east; this has evolved into a duplication of the road through Port Wakefield, resulting in wider carriageways and a safer separation of traffic. The contract for detailed design and construction of duplication of the highway through Port Wakefield and a grade-separated intersection with the

was let in March 2020 to the Port Wakefield to Port Augusta Alliance (a consortium of

CPB Contractors CIMIC Group Limited (formerly Leighton Holdings) is an Australian construction contractor. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries ...

Aurecon Aurecon is an engineering, management, design, planning, project management, consulting and advisory company based in Australia, with operations in the Middle East, New Zealand and South East Asia. History Formed through the merger of three ...

and

GHD Group GHD Group Pty Ltd (formerly known as Gutteridge Haskins & Davey) is a global employee-owned multinational technical professional services firm providing advisory, architecture and design, buildings, digital, energy and resources, environmental ...

, also responsible for the duplication of

Joy Baluch AM Bridge The Joy Baluch AM Bridge is a bridge across Spencer Gulf between Port Augusta and Port Augusta West in South Australia. It carries Highway 1 and is a key road link on both east–west and north–south road routes in Australia. The western en ...

), with the government announcing an overpass for the intersection with Copper Coast Highway in 2021. Project construction commenced in late 2020, with completion expected in 2022; the overpass to Copper Coast Highway opened in December 2021, four months ahead of schedule.

Major intersections

Towns

Port Wakefield Road passes through the northern

Adelaide Plains The Adelaide Plains (Kaurna name Tarndanya) is a plain in South Australia lying between the coast (Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southernmost tip of the plain is in the southern seaside suburbs of Ade ...

. To the west of the road is the coastal fringe of upper

Gulf St Vincent Gulf St Vincent, sometimes referred to as St Vincent Gulf, St Vincent's Gulf or Gulf of St Vincent, is the eastern of two large inlets of water on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, the other being the larger Sp ...

, including a number of fishing and holiday villages. To the east is rich cropping and farming land. The list of towns on or near the road include: *

* Lower Light *

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

Wild Horse Plains Wild Horse Plains is a locality in South Australia on the eastern coastline of Gulf St Vincent about north-northwest of the Adelaide city centre. Its name is attributed to Thomas Day, who found wild horses grazing within the locality around 187 ...

Inkerman Inkerman ( uk, Інкерман, russian: Инкерман, crh, İnkerman) is a city in the Crimean peninsula. It is ''de facto'' within the federal city of Sevastopol within the Russian Federation, but ''de jure'' within Ukraine. It lies 5 ...

References

{{Road infrastructure in South Australia Highways in Australia Roads in Adelaide Roads in South Australia Freeways and highways in Adelaide Highway 1 (Australia)

Route

History

Major intersections

Towns

See also

References