Barton Highway
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Barton Highway is a highway in
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
and the
Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...
. It connects
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
to Hume Highway at Yass, and it is part of the route from
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
to
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
. It is named in honour of
Sir Edmund Barton Sir Edmund "Toby" Barton, (18 January 18497 January 1920) was an Australian politician and judge who served as the first prime minister of Australia from 1901 to 1903, holding office as the leader of the Protectionist Party. He resigned to ...
, the first
Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...
.


Route

Heading east from Yass, Barton Highway originally commenced at a junction with Hume Highway, near the historic
Cooma Cottage Cooma Cottage is a heritage-listed former farm and tuberculosis sanatorium and now house museum and historic site at Yass Valley Way, Marchmont, Yass Valley Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1830 to 1837 by Cornelius and Reb ...
, and east of the
Yass River The Yass River, a perennial river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Southern Tablelands and South Western Slopes districts of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features The ri ...
. Requiring traffic to make a righthand turn across a single lane of the Hume Highway, the highway commenced at this point and tracked generally south by southeast, through undulating hills to the village of and entering the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), going through the village and main street of , and meeting the
Federal Highway Federal Highways and Federal Routes can be found in: *Australia: Federal Highway *Brazil: Brazilian Federal Highway and Brazilian Highway System *Germany: ''Bundesstraßen'' *Malaysia: Federal Highway and Malaysian Federal Roads System *Mexic ...
at at a junction near
Sullivans Creek Sullivans Creek, a partly perennial stream of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Location and features Sullivans Creek rises close to the border betwee ...
on Mouat Street, adjacent to
Lyneham High School Lyneham High School is a public secondary school in the Australian capital of Canberra that was founded in 1959. Located in the suburb of Lyneham, it is one of the only large public high schools in the immediate area. The school has a performin ...
and to the south of the Highway's current alignment. The Gundaroo Drive/Barton Highway round-about is surrounded by a number of trees to the south of the intersection. The pine
tree plantation A tree plantation, forest plantation, plantation forest, timber plantation or tree farm is a forest planted for high volume production of wood, usually by planting one type of tree as a monoculture forest. The term ''tree farm'' also is used to ...
was originally planted in the shape of a map of Australia


History

The passing of the ''Main Roads Act of 1924'' through the
Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Eac ...
provided for the declaration of Main Roads, roads partially funded by the State government through the Main Roads Board (later the Department of Main Roads, and eventually
Transport for NSW Transport for NSW, sometimes abbreviated to TfNSW, and pronounced as Transport for New South Wales, is an agency of the New South Wales Government established on 1 November 2011, and is the leading transport and roads agency in New South Wales, ...
). Main Road No. 56 was declared along this road on 8 August 1928, from Yass via Murrumbateman to Lyneham (and continuing northwards via Cowra to Forbes, Parkes, Dubbo, Gilgandra and Coonamble eventually to Walgett, and southwards via Canberra eventually to the intersection with Queanbeyan-Braidwood Road, today Kings Highway, at
Queanbeyan Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in the south-eastern region of New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the ...
); with the passing of the ''Main Roads (Amendment) Act of 1929'' to provide for additional declarations of State Highways and Trunk Roads, this was amended to Trunk Road 56 on 8 April 1929. The original purpose of the ''Yass-Canberra Road'' was to connect surrounding towns to farming locations in the Yass Valley, and later with the newly-established national capital. The Department of Main Roads, which had succeeded the MRB in 1932, declared State Highway 15 on 19 February 1935, from the intersection with Hume Highway near Yass via Murrumbateman to the border of the Federal Capital Territory (today Australian Capital Territory) at Hall, subsuming the existing portion Trunk Road 56 from Yass to Hall; the southern end of Trunk Road 56 was truncated to meet Hume Highway west of Yass, as a result. State Highway 15 was officially named as Barton Highway on 28 July 1954, and fully sealed by 1960. The first realignment occurred during the late 1970s, when the southern terminus of the highway was relocated north, to the north of the Yowani Country Club. In 1980 the village of Hall was bypassed; and during the early 1990s a dual carriageway was completed on the ACT section of the highway, between Hall and . A further section of dual carriageways was completed in December 2002, between
Gungahlin Drive Gungahlin Drive is an arterial road in Canberra, Australia. Its urban portion is long, and serves as one of the major thoroughfares in the Gungahlin district, before becoming a parkway standard roadway south of the Barton Highway. This high qu ...
and the southern terminus with the Federal Highway. The passing of the ''Roads Act of 1993'' through the
Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Eac ...
updated road classifications and the way they could be declared within New South Wales. Under this act, Barton Highway today retains its declaration as Highway 15, from the intersection with Hume Highway near Yass to the border of the Australian Capital Territory at Hall. Between April 1993 and May 1995, as part of the Hume Highway bypass of Yass, a dual carriageway deviation of Barton Highway was constructed to connect the Barton Highway with the new route of the Hume Highway, north of Yass. The new route crosses the Yass River on twin bridges to the east of Cooma Cottage before terminating at the Hume Highway about northeast of Yass. Barton Highway was signed National Route 25 across its entire length in 1956. The Whitlam Government introduced the federal ''National Roads Act 1974'', where roads declared as a National Highway were still the responsibility of the states for road construction and maintenance, but were fully compensated by the Federal government for money spent on approved projects. As an important interstate link between the capitals of the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria, Barton Highway was declared a National Highway in 1974, and was consequently re-allocated National Highway 25. With both states' conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in 2013, its route number was updated to route A25.


Murrumbateman bypass and staged duplication

The Barton Highway passes through farmlands and the NSW town of Murrumbateman. In October 2001 the Australian Government announced that they would bypass the town to the east. A$20 million was set aside in the 2006 federal budget for planning and duplication costs associated with the bypass. The same year, the
National Roads and Motorists' Association NRMA (formerly National Roads and Motorists' Association) is an Australian organisation offering roadside assistance, advocacy for motorists and road-users, motoring advice, car servicing, International Driving Permits, travel and other servic ...
had named the Barton Highway as the worst highway on the Auslink National Network in New South Wales; accounting for three road fatalities annually. While of the highway are located in New South Wales (NSW), only of the NSW section are dual carriageway. Various NSW and Federal governments have committed funding towards improvements to the Barton Highway, including a bypass east of Murrumbateman and a staged duplication to create of dual carriageways. Stage one of construction work has commenced and is scheduled to be completed by 2023.


Major intersections


See also

*
Highways in Australia Highways in Australia are generally high capacity roads managed by state and territory government agencies, though Australia's federal government contributes funding for important links between capital cities and major regional centres. Prio ...
*
List of highways in New South Wales The present highway network in New South Wales, Australia was established in August 1928 when the Country Roads Board (the predecessor of the Department of Main Roads, Roads & Traffic Authority and Roads & Maritime Services) superseded the 19 ...


References


External links

{{Road infrastructure in New South Wales Highways in the Australian Capital Territory Highways in New South Wales