Copper Coast Highway is a highway in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

which branches off from the Augusta and

Port Wakefield Highway Port Wakefield Highway (and its southern section as Port Wakefield Road) is an important South Australian highway, connecting Adelaide to the Yorke Peninsula, Port Augusta, northern and western South Australia, the Northern Territory and Wester ...

s 2 km north of Port Wakefield, and heads northwest across the top of

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula, known as Guuranda by the original inhabitants, the Narungga people, 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 ...

to Kadina, ending at the

Spencer Gulf The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe an ...

town of

Wallaroo Wallaroo is a common name for several species of moderately large macropods, intermediate in size between the kangaroos and the wallabies, that are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. The word "wallaroo" is from the Dharug ''walaru'' wi ...

Improvements

In 2016, the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

proposed to restructure the intersection on the Copper Coast Highway at the north end of the

Yorke Highway Yorke Highway is the main road from Adelaide to the southern parts of the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. It runs from the northeast to the southwest of the peninsula. It branches off Copper Coast Highway after rounding the top of Gulf St V ...

to provide a large roundabout instead of Yorke Highway terminating at a tee-junction. The roundabout is intended to reduce delays at the end of holiday periods when many people try to drive back towards Adelaide at the same time, and will permit

road train A road train, also known as a land train or long combination vehicle (LCV) is a semi-trailer used to move road freight more efficiently than single-trailer semi-trailers. It consists of one semi-trailer or more connected together with or wit ...

s to operate between Port Wakefield and

Ardrossan Ardrossan (; ) is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the 'Three Towns#Scotland, Three Towns'. Ardrossan is loca ...

which had previously not been permitted due to limitations of that intersection. Subsidiary works improved the Yorke Highway north of Ardrossan with a widened bridge, sealed shoulders and overtaking lanes. Road trains up to were previously permitted to operate on the

Augusta Highway Augusta Highway is the part of Australia's ring route (Highway 1 (Australia), Highway 1) located in South Australia between Port Wakefield, South Australia, Port Wakefield and Port Augusta, South Australia, Port Augusta. Route Augusta Highway ...

through Port Wakefield north towards

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of the Mid North region of South Australia. The city has an ex ...

and beyond, and from Ardrossan south to Port Giles, but were not permitted to operate north of Ardrossan to the Augusta Highway, limiting the capacity to transport grain or minerals. Work commenced on the roundabout in October 2017 and it was completed in January 2018. A proposal by the

Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia (LP) is the prominent centre-right political party in Australia. It is considered one of the two major parties in Australian politics, the other being the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The Liberal Party was fo ...

before the 2018 state election was that if it was elected it would build a single lane overpass at the Port Wakefield end of the Copper Coast Highway to reduce traffic conflicts. The party won the election and upgraded the planning to completely grade-separate the intersection. The contract for detailed design and construction of duplication of the highway through Port Wakefield and a grade-separated intersection with the Augusta and

s 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 engineering-led construction, mining, services and public private partnerships leader working across the lifecycle of assets, infrastructure and resources projects. History Founded in 194 ...

Aurecon Aurecon Group Pty Ltd is an Australian engineering, project management and consulting company based in Docklands, Victoria Docklands is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on the western end of the Melbourne central bus ...

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 end ...

Port Augusta Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...

), with the government announcing an overpass for the intersection with the Augusta and Port Wakefield Highways in 2021. Project construction commenced in late 2020, with completion expected in 2022; the overpass opened in December 2021, four months ahead of schedule.

Major intersections and towns

References

Yorke Peninsula Highways in South Australia {{Australia-road-stub