Yorke Highway

The 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 of the Copper Coast Highway after rounding the top of Gulf St Vincent, runs down the coast to Ardrossan then inland through Maitland to the Spencer Gulf coast at Hardwicke Bay then through Warooka to the south coast at Marion Bay and Stenhouse Bay on Investigator Strait.[1][2]

Yorke Highway South Australia
north end south end
Coordinates	34.116°S 138.127°E (north end) 35.275°S 136.939°E (south end)
General information
Type	Highway
Length	182 km (113 mi)[1]
Route number(s)	B86
Major junctions
north end	Copper Coast Highway, 9km north of Port Wakefield
	St Vincent Highway Spencer Highway Yorketown-Warooka Road
south end	Stenhouse Bay
Location(s)
Region	Yorke Peninsula
Major settlements	Ardrossan, Minlaton, Warooka, Marion Bay, Hardwicke Bay
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in South Australia

The state government proposes to restructure the intersection at the north end of the Yorke Highway to provide a large roundabout instead of it being the terminating road at a tee-junction.[3] The roundabout 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 will improve 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.

Rex Minerals propose to realign the Yorke Highway and move the intersection with the St Vincent Highway closer to Pine Point as part of the construction of the Hillside mine. What is now the northern end of the St Vincent Highway would move to a new alignment closer to the coast, with the Yorke Highway turning inland at the southern (Pine Point Road) end of this diversion instead of near the northern end.[6]

Major junctions

LGA	Location[7]	km[1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Wakefield Regional Council and Yorke Peninsula Council	Port Wakefield	0	0.0	Copper Coast Highway, 9km north of Port Wakefield	Northern end of Yorke Highway
Yorke Peninsula Council	Ardrossan	42	26	Maitland Road – Maitland
	Pine Point	55	34	St Vincent Highway – Port Vincent, Edithburgh
	Minlaton	93	58	Spencer Highway – Maitland
	Warooka	125	78	St Vincent Highway – Yorketown, Edithburgh
	Stenhouse Bay	182	113	Innes National Park	Southern terminus of Yorke Highway

References

1. Google (21 September 2014). "Yorke Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
2. "DPTI Maintained Roads, South Australia" (PDF). Department of Planning Transport and Infrastructure. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
3. Copper Coast Highway Intersection with Yorke Highway - for illustrative purposes only (PDF) (Map). Government of South Australia. August 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
4. Peter Malinauskas (10 August 2016). "New roundabout to help ease holiday traffic on Yorke Peninsula". News release - Peter Malinauskas (Press release). Government of South Australia.
5. RAVNet (Map). Government of South Australia. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
6. Rex Minerals Ltd (August 2013). "Hillside Copper Mine - Mining Lease Proposal & Management Plan" (PDF). Government of South Australia. pp. 341–343. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
7. "Naming of State Rural Roads - Yorke Peninsula" (PDF). 24 March 2011. Rack Plan 996. Retrieved 21 September 2014.