Closure of the Eyre Peninsula Rail Network in 2019 now requires agricultural produce to be transported by road to redistribution nodes or ports, which has increased the dependence on selected roads. Improvements aim to address safety and efficiency of transport on these routes.

Provision of additional overtaking lanes in key locations on the most affected roads of Lower Eyre Peninsula will help reduce the impacts on the road network. This will result in improved road safety, freight productivity and efficiency for road users, including holidaymakers travelling to seaside towns along the same transport corridors as heavy vehicles.

The overtaking lanes the Alliance has constructed are located on:

• Lincoln Highway (southbound), south of Tumby Bay;
• Lincoln Highway (northbound), near Louth Bay;
• Western Approach Road (southbound), at the junction with Pine Freezers Road, near Port Lincoln; and 
• Flinders Highway (southbound), at the junction with Tod Highway.

The Alliance has also upgraded the following two intersections as part of the project:

• Pine Freezers Road and Western Approach Road; and
• Flinders Highway and Tod Highway.

Temporary repair works were undertaken on Flinders Highway and Western Approach Road in January 2023, with further works completed in early June 2023, outside the harvest season.

As a result of recent heavy rain, remediation works are now being undertaken on a section of Flinders Highway near the junction with Tod Highway at Pearlah. 

Further monitoring of the road surface will continue throughout winter and additional remediation works will be undertaken, if required, at the following locations:

• Western Approach Road (southbound overtaking lane near Port Lincoln); and
• Flinders Highway (southbound overtaking lane at the junction with Tod Highway at Pearlah).