South Eastern Freeway
Template: Infobox several high-level roads / maintenance / AU N
States:
South Australia
The South Eastern Freeway is a highway in the southeast of the Australian state of South Australia. It connects the Adelaide - Crafers Crafers Highway to the Princes Highway at Swanport on the Murray River. The Adelaide - Crafers Highway merges seamlessly with the South Eastern Freeway, without signs point out separately. Therefore, they are also of South Australians often considered as a single highway and usually only called The Freeway, as this is the first and to date the longest freeway in South Australia. He is part of the national highway network and connecting Adelaide -Melbourne and is numbered as National Road M1.
History
Before the construction of the first freeways in the 1960s flowed all traffic from Adelaide in the south-eastern part of South Australia and in the neighboring state of Victoria on a two-lane road that had arisen in the first half of the 20th century. Population growth in Adelaide caused increasing congestion on this route and so a new building was, for security reasons, is necessary. Planning began in 1962 and saw before as a starting point Crafers, especially due to the high costs of a new building of Mount Barker Road ( from Adelaide to Crafers ).
Construction began in 1965 in Crafers. The first phase of construction of the eastbound carriageway was opened in 1967, the second with the road towards the west in 1969.
The opening of the new highway was the utilization of the longer rail link Bridgewater Railway Line plummet that 1987 persons had to be abandoned on this route.
The freeway passes through many towns that formerly were on two-lane Princes Highway:
- Murray Bridge
- Monarto
- Callington
- KANMANTOO
- Nairne
- Littlehampton
- Mount Barker
- Hahndorf
- Verdun
- Bridgewater
- Aldgate
- Stirling
- Crafers
Connections
The north-western end of the road merges seamlessly with the Adelaide - Crafers Highway, the narrow, winding Mount Barker Road replaced by the Adelaide Hills since 2000.
The southeastern end of the road at Murray Bridge leads into the Swanport Bridge, a 1 km, two-lane bridge over the Murray River developed over at the Princes Highway - four lanes again - towards Tailem Bend is connected. From there, the National Highway 1 as a two-lane tourist road through coastal towns in South Australia and Victoria, to Melbourne to continue. But the faster way of Tailem Bend to Melbourne is the Dukes Highway ( NA8 ) and its continuation in Victoria, the Western Highway ( NA8 )