Grand Junction Road

Grand Junction Road is the longest east–west thoroughfare in the Adelaide metropolitan area, traversing through Adelaide's northern suburbs approximately 8 kilometres north of the Adelaide city centre.[3]

Grand Junction Road

South Australia
Coordinates
General information
TypeRoad
LocationAdelaide
Length20.0 km (12 mi)[1]
Route number(s) A16 (1998–present)
Former
route number		 National Highway A16 (1998–2017)
(Wingfield–Northfield)
Major junctions
West end Bower Road
Port Adelaide, Adelaide
 
East end Lower North East Road
Hope Valley, Adelaide
Location(s)
RegionWestern Adelaide, Northern Adelaide[2]
Major suburbsPort Adelaide, Regency Park, Gepps Cross, Northfield, Holden Hill

Route

Travelling from the Port Adelaide region, it is mostly a double-lane sealed road (triple-laned between South Road and Cavan Road/Churchill Road and between Main North Road/Port Wakefield Road and Hampstead Road/Briens Road) (becoming a single-lane road past Tolley Road intersection at Hope Valley, South Australia) running 21 kilometres to the base of the Adelaide Hills. The western end at the intersection of Old Port Road, 300 metres east of a causeway which separates the Port River from West Lakes. The 2.4 kilometre section of road that continues west of Old Port Road to Semaphore South is named Bower Road. The eastern end of Grand Junction Road is in the suburb of Hope Valley, at the intersection of Hancock Road and Lower North East Road, just before the latter proceeds into the Adelaide Hills, past Anstey Hill Recreation Park and on towards the towns of Houghton and Inglewood.

History

The Grand Junction, located at today's intersection of Grand Junction Road and Churchill Road,[4] is the meeting point of what was once the most accessible route out of Adelaide City to the north (over the Torrens via Port Road). It was the intersection of North Road, later called Lower North Road (today Cavan Road), and the east–west road from Upper Dry Creek to the Port (today's Grand Junction Road from Walkley's Road to Cavan Road). It remained so until January 1843, when migrant labourers completed a new bridge spanning 120 feet over the Torrens River.[5] This enabled travellers to take the more direct route northward on the road from the city to Gawler Town (later called Great North Road, today Main North Road), and the junction of roads at Gepps Cross took on a greater significance than the Grand Junction.

In the mid-1850s the track and road from the upper Dry Creek, past the Grand Junction Inn, to the Port, was variously called ‘road to the Port’,[6] ‘Port Road,’[7] or ‘Grand Junction' to (Port) 'Causeway Road’.[8][9] In November 1854 the Legislative Council requested the Central Road Board estimate the cost of a continuous road from the Grand Junction to the "Port-road near Albert Town", rendered necessary by the formation of the Adelaide and Port Railway.[10] The road upgrade was shelved though for two years. In 1856 the Central Road Board resolved to upgrade the poor roadway between the Grand Junction Inn and Albert Town through the Alberton Swamp.[11] The matter was a serious concern for many district councils north of Adelaide and, in a united front, the district councils flooded the Legislative Council with petitions. On 9 May the Legislative Council passed a motion "for £2,500 to be placed on the Estimates, to form the road from the Grand Junction to Alberton."[12] Official reference to ‘Grand Junction Road’ was made by the government in a message (No. 42) received from the Governor-in-Chief which appropriate funds for the road to the Central Road Board in 1856.[13]

Progress on the road was slow, and it was not until May 1857 that approval was given to metal (pave) the new road with compacted limestone.[14] The woes of the road dragged on. Tenderers defaulted and further works were ordered, including an additional 1,000 cubic yards of limestone on the swamp that still was not laid by the end of 1858.[15][16][17] The road between the Grand Junction Inn and Alberton across the swamp turned into a money pit for the road board and the community. The saga continued for years. In July 1861 the Central Road Board yet again called for tenders to make 19 chains of the Grand Junction Road over sands at Alberton Swamp.[18] Popular usage of the name "Grand Junction Road" greatly increased after the upgrade was completed in the early 1860s.

Major intersections

There are a number of major intersections along Grand Junction Road, the largest being at Gepps Cross, where Main North Road and Port Wakefield Road meet at a five-way crossing. Main North Road joins from the south and continues on to the north-east, towards Parafield, Elizabeth and Gawler, while Port Wakefield Road begins at this location, travelling due north to the northern Adelaide Plains and 90 kilometres to the town of Port Wakefield. The original Grand Junction at the intersection with Churchill and Cavan Roads was once a five-way intersection used by most northbound travel out of Adelaide. Another intersection was added in 2011, the Gallipoli Drive.[19]

LGA[20]Location[1][21]km[1]miDestinationsNotes
Port Adelaide EnfieldPort Adelaide-West Lakes boundary0.00.0Bower Road – Semaphore SouthWestern terminus of road, route A16 continues west along Bower Road
Old Port Road – Port Adelaide, Queenstown
Port Adelaide-Alberton boundary0.70.43 Commercial Road (A7 north) – Port Adelaide
Port Road (A7 south) – Woodville, Hindmarsh, Adelaide
Port Adelaide-Alberton-Rosewater tripoint1.10.68Outer Harbor railway line
Rosewater2.21.4Dry Creek-Port Adelaide railway line
Port Adelaide Enfield-Charles Sturt boundaryWingfield-Mansfield Park-Athol Park-Ottoway quadripoint4.12.5Hanson Road – Wingfield, Kilkenny
Port Adelaide EnfieldWingfield-Regency Park-Angle Park tripoint5.73.5South Road, to North-South Motorway – Waterloo Corner, Wingfield, Hindmarsh
Wingfield-Regency Park-Dry Creek-Kilburn quadripoint7.14.4Gawler and Adelaide-Port Augusta SG railway lines
Dry Creek-Kilburn-Gepps Cross tripoint7.34.5 Cavan Road (A22 north), to Churchill Road North – Cavan
Churchill Road (A22 south) – Kilburn, Prospect, Ovingham
Gepps Cross-Enfield-Blair Athol tripoint9.05.6 Port Wakefield Road (A1 north) – Waterloo Corner, Two Wells, Port Wakefield
Main North Road (A1 south) – Blair Athol, Prospect, North Adelaide
Main North Road (A20 northeast) – Pooraka, Elizabeth, Gawler
Gepps Cross-Northfield-Clearview tripoint10.56.5Briens Road (north) – Para Hills, Salisbury East
Hampstead Road (A17 south) – Manningham, Marden, Norwood, Glen Osmond
Tea Tree GullyHolden Hill-Modbury-Gilles Plains-Valley View quadripoint15.49.6 North East Road (A10) – Medindie, Hampstead Gardens, Houghton, Birdwood
Holden Hill-Modbury-Hope Valley tripoint16.09.9O-Bahn Busway
Vista-Hope Valley boundary20.012.4 Hancock Road (A11 north) – Golden Grove, Salisbury Park
Lower North East Road (A11 south, A16 east) – Houghton, Campbelltown, Kent TownEastern terminus of road, route A16 continues east along Lower North East Road
  •       Route transition

Railway crossings

Due to the configuration of the Adelaide railway system north of the Adelaide city centre, there are a number of current and former railway crossings over Grand Junction Road. These include:

Educational institutions

Adjoining institutions

A number of schools and other education institutions front onto Grand Junction Road. These include:

Non-adjoining institutions

There are also schools which are located within a few streets of Grand Junction Road, in adjacent suburbs:

Other landmarks

Grand Junction Road also passes Yatala Labour Prison, the Adelaide Pre-Release Centre and the Adelaide Women's Prison at Northfield.

See also

icon Australian Roads portal

References
  1. Google (24 June 2022). "Grand Junction Road" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  2. "Location SA Map viewer with regional layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  3. 2003 Adelaide Street Directory, 41st Edition. UBD (A Division of Universal Press Pty Ltd). 2003. ISBN 0-7319-1441-4.
  4. Fuller, W.C. (1940). "Adelaide - Map 7" (Map). Street Directory of Adelaide and Suburbs with Reference Maps. Keyplan. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  5. "OFFICIAL RETROSPECT FOR 1842". The Southern Australian. Adelaide, SA. 6 January 1843. p. 2. NORTH ROAD. On the Northern Road various works have been executed over a distance extending from Adelaide to Gawler Town. At the point where this road passes over the Torrens in the Park Lands, a bridge of 120 feet span has been erected. This road has also been cleared as far as the Little Para.
  6. "Land for sale, in the District of Yatala". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 2 February 1855. p. 4. Retrieved 16 December 2015. LAND for SALE, in the DISTRICT of YATALA, opposite the Grand Junction, having frontage to the Lower North-road and the road to the Port, containing 67 Acres, and likely to become a property of great value, from the fact that as the Gawler Town Railway passes through the property, a Terminus is here intended for the Branch to the Port.
  7. "Advertising". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 22 December 1856. p. 4. Retrieved 19 December 2019 – via Trove.
  8. "CENTRAL ROAD BOARD". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 22 March 1865. p. 3. Retrieved 16 December 2015. No. 1152. Road from Grand Junction to Cause-way on Port-road, for forming and metalling about 20 chains of road near the Grand Junction end— No tenders. To be readvertised.
  9. "THE NEW MAIN ROADS ACT". South Australian Weekly Chronicle. Adelaide. 27 May 1865. p. 4 – via Trove.
  10. "CENTRAL ROAD BOARD". South Australian Register. South Australia. 10 November 1854. p. 3. Retrieved 19 December 2019 – via Trove.
  11. "CENTRAL ROAD BOARD". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 11 April 1856. p. 3 – via Trove.
  12. "THE LATE SESSION OF COUNCIL". South Australian Register. Adelaide news. 23 June 1856. p. 2 – via Trove.
  13. "MESSAGE". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 15 May 1856. p. 3.
  14. "CENTRAL ROAD BOARD". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 22 May 1857. p. 3 – via Trove.
  15. "CENTRAL ROAD BOARD". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 23 January 1858. p. 3 – via Trove.
  16. "CENTRAL ROAD BOARD". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 5 November 1858. p. 3 – via Trove. Proceeding very slowly.
  17. "CENTRAL BOAD BOARD". The South Australian Advertiser. Adelaide. 10 January 1859. p. 3 – via Trove.
  18. "CENTRAL ROAD BOARD". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 4 July 1861. p. 3 – via Trove.
  19. "New Connections: Issue 8, Winter 2011". New Connections. Government of South Australia: Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure. Issue 8, Winter 2011: 3. 6 May 2011 – via infrastructure.sa.gov.au.
  20. "Location SA Map viewer with LGA layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  21. "Location SA Map viewer with suburb layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
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