The SA government will refit the Heysen Tunnels to improve the South Eastern Freeway
The South Australian government says the Heysen Tunnels are set for an extensive refit to ensure they continue to service South Australia for decades to come.
The project addresses current tunnel elements that are at the end of their service life to improve safety, traffic management and incident response capabilities.
Works include:
- upgrading the tunnel lighting to a new LED system;
- installing a new automated fire suppression system;
- upgrading the tunnel ventilation system;
- repairing the tunnel lining and installing monitoring equipment;
- upgrading the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) equipment, including thermal incident detection systems, new and replacement CCTV, electronic speed and messaging signage and over-height vehicle detection;
- upgrading the traffic management system to restrict access to the tunnels in the event of an emergency incident; and
- upgrading emergency communication systems, including public address, radio rebroadcast, in-tunnel signage and help phones to improve safety and network reliability.
The SA government says more than 50,000 vehicles travel through the tunnels each day, around 10 per cent of which are heavy vehicles.
McConnell Dowell Constructors has been appointed as the Managing Contractor for the works and where possible, local sub-contractors and suppliers will be engaged to deliver packages of works.
The Australian and South Australian governments have jointly committed funding towards the Heysen Tunnels Refit and Safety Upgrade Project, with the federal government contributing $120 million and South Australian government $30 million, as part of a broader South Eastern Freeway Upgrade, which also includes Stage 2 of the Managed Motorway Measures project.
Works are expected to continue in the Crafers bound tunnel for approximately two months when the closure will switch to the Adelaide bound tunnel, and the Crafers bound tunnel will accommodate traffic in both directions, via contraflow.
These traffic arrangements are anticipated to continue throughout 2023 until the second half of 2024, with traffic alternating between the Crafers bound and Adelaide bound tunnels approximately every two months.