Copper Coast Highway

Copper Coast Highway South Australia
East end West end
Coordinates	34.1620°S 138.1556°E / -34.1620; 138.1556 (East end) 33.9320°S 137.6283°E / -33.9320; 137.6283 (West end)
General information
Type	Highway
Length	57.8 km (36 mi)[1]
Route number(s)	B85 (1998–present)
Major junctions
East end	Augusta Highway Port Wakefield Highway Port Wakefield, South Australia
	Yorke Highway
West end	Spencer Highway Wallaroo, South Australia
Location(s)
Region	Yorke and Mid North[2]
Major settlements	Kulpara, Paskeville, Kadina
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in South Australia

Copper Coast Highway is a highway in South Australia which branches off from the Augusta and Port Wakefield Highways 2 km north of Port Wakefield, and heads northwest across the top of Yorke Peninsula to Kadina, ending 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.^[3] 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 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.^[4] Road trains up to 36.5 metres (120 ft) 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,^[5] limiting the capacity to transport grain or minerals. Work commenced on the roundabout in October 2017 and it was completed in January 2018.^[6]

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 Port Wakefield end of the Copper Coast Highway to reduce traffic conflicts.^[7] The party won the election and upgraded the planning to completely grade-separate the intersection.^[8] The contract for detailed design and construction of duplication of the highway through Port Wakefield and a grade-separated intersection with the Augusta and Port Wakefield Highways was let in March 2020 to the Port Wakefield to Port Augusta Alliance (a consortium of CPB Contractors, Aurecon and GHD Group, also responsible for the duplication of Joy Baluch AM Bridge in Port Augusta),^[9][10] with the government announcing an overpass for the intersection with the Augusta and Port Wakefield Highways in 2021.^[11] Project construction commenced in late 2020, with completion expected in 2022;^[9] the overpass opened in December 2021, four months ahead of schedule.^[12]

Major intersections and towns

LGA[13]	Location[1][14]	km[1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Wakefield	Port Wakefield	0.0	0.0	Augusta Highway (A1 north) – Snowtown, Port Augusta Port Wakefield Highway (A1 south) – Adelaide	Eastern terminus of highway and route B85
	Port Arthur	6.0	3.7	Yorke Highway (B86) – Ardrossan	Road-train capable roundabout
Barunga West	Kulpara	17.2	10.7	Upper Yorke Road – Maitland, Bute
Copper Coast	Paskeville	30.0	18.6	Prices Road – Ninnes
		33.9	21.1	Ninnes Road – Lochiel
		35.1	21.8	Thrington Road – Moonta
	Kadina	48.8	30.3	Port Broughton Road (north) – Port Broughton Mines Road (south) – Moonta
	Wallaroo	57.8	35.9	Spencer Highway (B89) – Port Broughton, Moonta	Western terminus of highway and route B85
Route transition

References

1. "Copper Coast Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
2. "Location SA Map viewer with regional layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
3. Copper Coast Highway Intersection with Yorke Highway - for illustrative purposes only (PDF) (Map). Government of South Australia. August 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
4. Peter Malinauskas (10 August 2016). "New roundabout to help ease holiday traffic on Yorke Peninsula". News release (Press release). Government of South Australia.
5. RAVNet (Map). Government of South Australia. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
6. Mayfield, Greg (9 January 2018). "Traffic fix sends mayors round the twist". The Northern Argus. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
7. "Cutting out crash corner at Port Wakefield". Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division). 29 January 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
8. "Port Wakefield Overpass and Highway Duplication". Department of Planning, Transport & Infrastructure. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
9. "Port Wakefield Overpass and Highway Duplication". Department of Planning, Transport & Infrastructure. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
10. McCormack, Michael (1 March 2020). "PORT WAKEFIELD AND JOY BALUCH UPGRADES ARE SIGNED, SEALED AND SOON TO BE DELIVERED" (PDF) (Press release). Retrieved 9 May 2020 – via Department of Planning, Transport & Infrastructure.
11. "New overpass to open at notorious Port Wakefield traffic nightmare spot | 7NEWS - YouTube". YouTube.
12. "CPB Contractors delivers Port Wakefield Overpass four months ahead of schedule". CPB Contractors. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
13. "Location SA Map viewer with LGA layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
14. "Location SA Map viewer with suburb layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.