Yorke Highway

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 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.^[3]

Yorke Highway South Australia
Northeast end Southwest end Show map of South Australia Northeast end Southwest end Show map of Yorke Peninsula Council
Coordinates	34°06′58″S 138°07′35″E / 34.116151°S 138.126415°E / -34.116151; 138.126415 (Northeast end) 35°16′04″S 136°56′29″E / 35.267842°S 136.941471°E / -35.267842; 136.941471 (Southwest end)
General information
Type	Highway
Length	180 km (112 mi)[1]
Route number(s)	B86 (1998–present)
Major junctions
Northeast end	Copper Coast Highway Port Arthur, South Australia
	St Vincent Highway Spencer Highway
Southwest end	Pondalowie Bay Road Stenhouse Bay, South Australia
Location(s)
Region	Yorke and Mid North[2]
Major settlements	Ardrossan, Minlaton, Warooka, Marion 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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,^[6] 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.^[7]