Flood recovery works on the Stuart Highway at Lake Windabout are complete, strengthening the vital freight route between South Australia and the Northern Territory.
In early 2022, intense rainfall and subsequent flooding caused extensive damage to sections of the Stuart Highway, disrupting travel and the transport of essential supplies and services.
These remediation works occurred in an area approximately 150 kilometres north of Port Augusta and included raising the road level and incorporating new drainage structures to enable this 1.5-kilometre stretch of the highway to withstand and remain open during flood events.
Erosion protection was also installed to boost flood resilience, strengthening the road pavement and shoulders to help prevent washouts and delivering safer, more reliable journeys in the state's far north.
These completed works will enable the road to return to functionality sooner in the aftermath of future flooding events, reducing the economic impact of disasters and connecting regional communities with more resilient infrastructure.
The Stuart Highway runs for almost 1000 kilometres through South Australia, linking Port Augusta to Darwin. An average 900 vehicles, including 300 heavy vehicles, travel through the area near Lake Windabout each day.
In cooler months, traffic volumes along this stretch of the highway can peak at 1300 vehicles each day, with one third of these heavy vehicles.
The project forms part of the Australian and South Australian governments' $75 million (80:20) Flood Recovery Targeted Investment to Improve National Supply Chain Resilience program, delivered over four years.
During construction, several wide loads – some more than five metres across – safely travelled through the project site.
Careful planning and traffic management also kept competitors in the World Solar Challenge on the move when they travelled through the construction zone in late August, on their way from Darwin to Adelaide.
The remediation works supported 31 full-time jobs during construction and follow the completion of flood repairs on a 1.5-kilometre section of the Stuart Highway at Glendambo.
These works included pavement rehabilitation and sealing, excavation and upgrades to culverts, and shoulder and batter protection works.
As put by Emily Bourke
The Stuart Highway is a key freight corridor through the heart of the state's far north.
Regional communities rely on road links for access to emergency care and essential goods and services, and this becomes even more critical during extreme weather events.
By investing in flood resilience, we are improving freight efficiencies and delivering safer, more reliable journeys for the hundreds of thousands of people who travel this route each year.
We have greatly appreciated the collaborative support and guidance of the Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation throughout this project, and we thank the community for their understanding while these critical safety works were completed.
As put by Eddie Hughes, Member for Giles
Improving the resilience of our national freight and light vehicle road network is a very worthwhile investment.
All of the predictions are that intense weather events will increase over the coming years and we need to prepare in order to minimise disruption and assist communities that are at risk of being cut off.
