Alpine Way is a rural road located in the Snowy Mountains region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The road connects in the east to the

- Victorian border in the west, crossing the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

near Bringenbrong and Upper Towong.

Route

Alpine Way commences at the intersection with Kosciuszko Road in Jindabyne, on the eastern side of the Snowy Mountains, and heads in a south-westerly direction, adjacent to the Thredbo River and eventually past Thredbo. It then climbs and crosses the crest of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills. It runs roughl ...

at Dead Horse Gap at an altitude of , then winds a descent down to and eventually crosses Snowy Creek at Murray Gorge at an altitude of , very close to the Murray River. Thereafter, it continues in a northerly direction around the western side of the range along the upper reaches of the Murray River Tributaries, crossing the Swampy Plain River at Geehi Hut and continuing northwards to . It then heads in a northwesterly direction to eventually cross the

and terminate at Murray Valley Highway on the river's southern bank, within Victoria. The majority of the road is contained within

Kosciuszko National Park The Kosciuszko National Park ( ) is a national park and contains mainland Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, for which it is named, and Cabramurra, New South Wales, Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia. Its borders contain a mix o ...

and since 2004 has been maintained by Roads & Maritime Services.

Road restrictions

Road restrictions in the region require all

two-wheel drive Two-wheel-drive (2WD) denotes vehicles with a drivetrain that allows two wheels to be driven, and receive power and torque from the engine, simultaneously. Four-wheeled vehicles For four-wheeled vehicles (and by extension, vehicles with six, ...

vehicles carry snow chains between Thredbo and Tom Groggin from the long weekends marking the King's Official Birthday in June and the Labour Day in October. It is also quite possible that snow chains may be needed to drive safely along other (more dangerous) parts of Alpine Way.

History

The road was initially built in the 1950s as part of the access for the

Snowy Mountains Scheme The Snowy Mountains Scheme, also known as the Snowy Hydro or the Snowy scheme, is a hydroelectricity and irrigation in Australia, irrigation complex in south-east Australia. Near the border of New South Wales and Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

. However, the paving of it was only completed approximately forty years later in the 1990s. The Roads and Traffic Authority declared Main Road 627 along the western portion of Alpine Way, from the border with Victoria along Murray River in Bringenbrong through Khancoban to the western boundary of

to its east, on 15 January 1993. Main Road 677 was declared along the eastern portion of Alpine Way, from Jindabyne to the eastern boundary of Kosciuszko National Park at Bullocks Flat, on 31 October 1997; this was extended west along the remaining section of Alpine Way to the western boundary of Kosciuszko National Park east of Khancoban on 17 May 2004. The passing of the ''Roads Act of 1993''State of New South Wales, ''An Act to make provision with respect to the roads of New South Wales; to repeal the State Roads Act 1986, the Crown and Other Roads Act 1990 and certain other enactments; and for other purposes.''
10 November 1924 updated road classifications and the way they could be declared within New South Wales. Under this act, Alpine Way retains its declaration as Main Roads 627 and 677.

Major intersections

References

External links