South Eastern Freeway Heavy Vehicle Safety Review

The South Eastern Freeway forms part of the Adelaide to Melbourne road corridor and is an important strategic heavy vehicle freight route for South Australia. In 2021, the South Eastern Freeway, between Crafers interchange and Glen Osmond, carried an average of 48,000 vehicles per day, with approximately 5,200 of these classed as heavy vehicles.

In July 2022, nine people were injured in a serious multiple vehicle crash at the bottom of the South Eastern Freeway. Since then, there continue to be incidents involving heavy vehicles on the descent, with safety issues such as smoking overheated brakes, break-downs or use of the arrester beds. The Department for Infrastructure and Transport’s Traffic Management Centre recorded 43 incidents between July 2022 and May 2024 – including the crash on 15 May 2024.

In 2022 we undertook a comprehensive review of heavy vehicle safety on the South Eastern Freeway down-track (city bound lanes) between Crafers and the intersection of Cross Road, Portrush Road and Glen Osmond Road.

The review further explored:

• improvements and better ways to use existing infrastructure and systems such as safety ramps, signage and safety cameras
• how technology could be used to improve safety
• speed and traffic management
• improvements to compliance and heavy vehicle driver competencies, including legislation, driver and industry training, education and communication with industry and communities
• investigating other similar examples across Australia to understand the range of measures that have been implemented to manage steep descents.

Three industry roundtable sessions were held with the road freight sector, road safety experts, South Australian Police (SAPOL), National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) and other key stakeholders to identify the key issues and inform a range of potential solutions. The community also provided their view and ideas through the project website, social media channels and via an online survey.

The review discovered that there is no single solution that will prevent all incidents from happening on all occasions. This forum ultimately shortlisted various options to address heavy vehicle safety on the down-track of the South Eastern Freeway.

The options were a mix of long, medium and short term initiatives. Some of these could be implemented immediately while others would require further investigation and/or a business case to determine their feasibility. The Proposed options document can be reviewed for further information.

The safety measures currently in place on the South Eastern Freeway include increased signage, reduced speeds for heavy vehicles and covering the costs of towing heavy vehicles from safety ramps.

To date, the South Australian Government has implemented the following initiatives as part of the South Eastern Freeway Heavy Vehicle Safety Review:

Updated education material provided to Heavy Vehicle operators

We worked with heavy vehicle operators to run an education campaign that targeted local and interstate heavy vehicle operators. The campaign included education material about safety and legislative obligations and important safety information. This information was updated on the Department’s South Eastern Freeway web pages, the MyLicence website and the South Australian government’s Information and Services website (SA.GOV.AU).

We also worked with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) to provide updated education material to heavy vehicle fleet operators.

Enhanced communication to Heavy Vehicle operators

We are providing enhanced communication to drivers through an update of the existing RAVNet Heavy Vehicle Network route website and the NHVR National Network Map to highlight the freeway descent with supporting information.

The Department also launched a new South Eastern Freeway heavy vehicle information webpage to further assist heavy vehicle operators with education, awareness and other communication materials with information and important reminders about heavy vehicle safety and legislative obligations.

Improved training for heavy vehicle operators

On 20 February 2025, the following improvements to heavy vehicle driver competency took effect:

• An ongoing Multi-Combination (MC) Licence Program that allows drivers to participate in a structured learning program with the support of their employer, and
• South Australia no longer recognises overseas heavy vehicle driving experience toward obtaining a MC licence, except for drivers from New Zealand because the training and driving conditions are similar to those in Australia

In addition to the above, new training manuals and learner guides are being rolled out for all heavy vehicle licence classes. Importantly, including mandated hills training as part of all Heavy Vehicle training and assessments via the Competency Based Training and Assessment and Vehicle on Road Test here in South Australia.

New updated theory components have also been developed and rolled out for delivery by the industry for all Multi Combination upgrades and Training in Lieu of Experience Heavy Combination students.

Enhanced compliance powers for the NHVR

In 2024, regulation changes enabled the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) to make u-turns on the freeway to help with enforcement and monitoring of heavy vehicle compliance, and to ensure the safety of all road users.

Enhanced signage to assist heavy vehicle operators with the steep descent

The Department has reviewed the current static signage and pavement marking and has identified opportunities for improvement to assist heavy vehicle operators with the steep freeway descent. These changes will be implemented in 2025.

This will encourage safer heavy vehicle driver behaviour, provide further guidance around the use of safety ramps and reinforce driver awareness of the steep descent. The new signage will further emphasise the mandatory use of low gear for heavy vehicle operators, use more symbols and simpler wording and reinforce the message that there is no cost to road users from the Department for using or removing vehicles from the safety ramp.

Third safety ramp

A business case for a new third safety ramp between the existing lower safety ramp and the intersection will be developed in 2025. Further planning and investigation work will be required to help inform the business case.

The South Eastern Freeway provides the most direct connection between Adelaide and Melbourne. It is a key corridor connecting Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills. As part of the National Land Transport Network, maintaining efficient operation of the freeway is recognised by Infrastructure Australia as a nationally significant issue.

A key action of South Australia’s Road Safety Action Plan 2023-2025 is to investigate ways to improve safety on the South Eastern Freeway down-track. We understand the freeway is a vital route for many thousands of commuters and for freight. We know that demand for freight is increasing. Improving our road network to create an efficient and safe infrastructure for all road users is key priority for the South Australian Government.

The Adelaide Hills is projected to have significant population growth, particularly around Mount Barker. The following projects are currently in progress:

High Productivity Vehicle Network (HPVN)

The Federal Government has committed $525 million to deliver the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass as part of Stage 1 of the High Productivity Vehicle Network. It includes duplication of the Swanport Bridge near Murray Bridge and various road upgrades between Monarto and the Sturt Highway. The project will allow access for higher productivity vehicles to bypass the South Eastern Freeway and metropolitan Adelaide.

South Eastern Freeway Upgrade (2024-2026)

This $200 million project involved a complete safety refit and upgrade of the Heysen Tunnels, and will include Stage 2 of the Managed Motorway project which involves delivering a managed motorway between Crafers and Glen Osmond, including extending and upgrading the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) equipment, such as thermal incident detection systems, new and replacement Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), Lane Use Management Signs (LUMS) and Variable Message Signage (VMS).

The following projects are in planning and are expected to be completed in 2027:

Verdun Interchange Upgrade

The existing Verdun Interchange will be upgraded to a full interchange, allowing access to and from the South Eastern Freeway in all directions. Upgrading this interchange will improve connectivity, traffic efficiency and commuter safety in the area.

Mount Barker Interchange Upgrade

The existing Mount Barker Interchange will be upgraded to include a new three-lane bridge across the South Eastern Freeway for northbound traffic, with the existing bridge converted to accommodate three lanes of southbound traffic and a new Shared Use Path. It will also include improved ramp capacity and new traffic signals to improve safety and reduce congestion.

As part of the South Australian Freight and Supply Chain Strategy. we aim to facilitate transparent and long-term planning across infrastructure and land-use, identifying and protecting freight networks and supply chain assets, to support informed decision making and user safety.