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RAA is calling on the Federal Government to prioritise funding to fully duplicate the Augusta Highway, which will save lives on one of SA’s busiest regional corridors, ahead of the Federal Budget.
The Augusta Highway recorded 43 deaths and 319 injures (97 serious and 222 minor) between 2014-2023 – making it one of the most dangerous regional corridors in South Australia.
Thousands of vehicles use the road every day, with the stretch between Crystal Brook and Port Pirie carrying as many as 5500 per day.
Approximately 30% of all traffic on the Augusta Highway is heavy vehicles, including road trains and B-triple combinations.
RAA has long called for duplication of SA’s national highways including the Augusta, Sturt and Dukes Highway – and it is now calling for the Augusta Highway completion to be prioritised to save South Australian lives.
The Augusta Highway connects the east and west of the country and is a nationally significant freight route.
The state’s peak motoring body welcomes the recent completion of the 29-kilometre stretch between Port Wakefield and Lochiel – this progress brings the prospect of a fully-duplicated Augusta Highway closer to a reality.
Highway duplication involves the construction of a second roadway to provide a minimum of two lanes of traffic flow in each direction, physically separated by a median and/or barrier system that greatly improves safety.
Duplicating corridors also presents opportunities to realign trouble spots, such as substandard curves or crests, and upgrade dangerous intersections. The likelihood of serious head on, hit fixed object and run-off road crashes can be substantially reduced on a duplicated corridor.
RAA Senior Manager Road Safety Charles Mountain said the Augusta Highway needed to be duplicated if South Australia wants to reach the targets set out in its Road Safety Strategy to 2031.
“The Augusta Highway carries thousands of vehicles each day and its current state makes it a potentially dangerous corridor,” Mr Mountain said.
“RAA is urging both Federal Government and State Governments to commit funding to its duplicate it as a priority and save South Australian lives.
“There has been great progress made on the section between Port Wakefield and Lochiel, which makes journeys on this stretch far safer, but we must start work on the remaining 160 kilometres as a priority.
“The most common casualty crash type on the Augusta Highway is hit fixed object crashes, and a number of head-on collisions as well, both of which are devastating at high speed. Duplication will substantially reduce the likelihood of these crashes occurring.
“If we are to reach our Road Safety targets of a 50% reduction in lives lost and 30% reduction in serious injuries by 2031, we have to fix one of the state’s most dangerous and busiest regional roads.”
RAA’s call comes as the Australian Automobile Association launches its new My Safety Counts campaign, which urges politicians to release the safety ratings given to Australian roads.
Like vehicles, roads across Australia are given star ratings by road safety experts – yet these ratings are not released to the public.
The My Safety Counts campaign calls for these star ratings used to guide funding decisions and released to the public – so we can fix our most dangerous roads, not just those that benefit the Government of the day.
For more information visit the My Safety Counts website.