Copper Coast Highway


The Copper Coast Highway is a highway in South Australia which branches off from the Augusta Highway 2 km north of Port Wakefield and heads northwest across the top of Yorke Peninsula to Kadina and ends at the Spencer Gulf town of Wallaroo.

Improvements

In 2016, the state government proposed to restructure the intersection on the Copper Coast Highway at the north end of the Yorke Highway 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 lots of people try to drive back towards Adelaide at the same time, and will permit road trains to operate between Port Wakefield and Ardrossan 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 through Port Wakefield north towards Port Pirie 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 before the 2018 state election was that if it was elected it would build a single lane overpass at the Augusta Highway 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 Port Wakefield Road through Port Wakefield and grade-separate the intersection with the Copper Coast Highway was let in March 2020 to the Port Wakefield to Port Augusta Alliance, a consortium of CPB Contractors, Aurecon and GHD Group. This consortium is also responsible for the duplication of Joy Baluch AM Bridge in Port Augusta. Both projects are expected to be completed in 2022.

Major intersections and towns