Another major intersection will be included in South Australia’s $896 million Torrens Road to River Torrens (T2T) upgrade.
The T2T upgrade of the North-South Corridor will be extended by approximately one kilometre. The lowered South Road motorway will now be extended north of the Torrens Road intersection meaning traffic on the non-stop motorway will now avoid six sets of traffic lights and a level crossing.
The extension has been negotiation within the existing budget
Vehicles on South Road will now bypass major intersections with Torrens, Port and Grange roads, as well as the Hawker and Hurtle Street intersection and the Outer Harbor rail line.
The motorway will now end to the north of Torrens Road, leaving just over a kilometre and two sets of traffic lights between T2T and the South Road Superway.
There will be three lanes in each direction on the lowered non-stop motorway, which will be about eight metres below the existing surface of South Road.
Avoiding the intersection of South and Torrens roads is predicted to cut another two minutes from average travel times on this section of South Road, increasing the overall average travel time saving for the project to about 7.5 minutes.
Through a reduction in traffic delays and congestion, the economic and social benefits of the project will far exceed the cost of the T2T, with a benefit to cost ratio of 2.9.
Construction of the T2T began in August and is on-track to be completed in 2018, supporting about 480 jobs a year during construction.