South East Traffic Solution

The following four projects have been completed under the South East Traffic Solution

• Arthur Highway Overtaking Lane - an overtaking lane has been constructed on the Arthur Highway south of Iron Creek Bridge.
• Midway Point Intersection Solution - the Tasman Highway roundabout at Penna Road has been replaced with a signalised intersection.
• Sorell Southern Bypass - a bypass has been built between the Tasman Highway near Giblin Drive intersection and the Arthur Highway near Nugent Road.
• Hobart Airport Interchange Upgrade - the Tasman Highway roundabout at Holyman Avenue and Kennedy Drive has been replaced with a new highway bridge (flyover), ramps and roundabouts, safely separating highway and airport traffic and allowing highway traffic to pass this area at higher speed.

Two more projects have been committed for delivery through the South East Traffic Solution

• Tasman Highway - Hobart Airport to Midway Point Causeway - two additional lanes linking the Midway Point Causeway with the new Hobart Airport Interchange, a signalised intersection at Pittwater Road and service roads to provide safe access to Tasmania Golf Club and Barilla Bay Oysters.
• Duplication of Midway Point and Sorell Causeways - Widening both causeways to two lanes each way, and duplicating McGees Bridge, to provide four continuous through lanes along the Tasman Highway from the Tasmania Golf Club to Midway Point to Sorell.

The Arthur Highway overtaking lane, Midway Point traffic lights, Hobart Airport Interchange and Sorell Southern Bypass are complete and open to traffic.

The overtaking lane on the Arthur Highway south of Iron Creek was constructed in 2020.

In 2022 the newly built traffic lights on the Tasman Highway at Midway Point were switched on to accommodate four lanes of highway traffic and two lanes turning right out of Penna Road, to head towards Hobart.

If you are travelling between Hobart and the southern beaches or Tasman Peninsula, you are now able to bypass Sorell on a new, 2 kilometre, 80km/hr speed limited road with roundabouts at each end to keep traffic moving. The Sorell Southern Bypass project was opened to traffic in 2022.

Works have finished at the Hobart Airport Interchange, including the landscaping and electronic on-road traveller information signage works completed in June 2023.

Hobart Airport to Midway Point Causeway project

We are continuing work on the Hobart Airport to Midway Point Causeway project. The design is complete. Construction is expected to commence during 2024 but only once complex environmental approvals are obtained.

Investigations to protect threatened species along the Midway Point and Sorell Causeways are underway. Engagement with environmental regulators has commenced. Find out more on this video.

To find out more about the two active projects, please visit the Hobart Airport to Midway Point Causeway webpage and the Duplication of Midway Point and Sorell Causeways webpage.

*NOTE - These projects are subject to complex Australian and State Government environmental approval processes. As such the timeframes provided are indicative only.

Previous community consultation on SETS projects

2022

In March 2022 we asked the community for feedback on the Midway Point and Sorell causeways.

The proposed Midway Point causeway upgrade includes a duplicated causeway and a new bridge to the north of McGees bridge, while the existing Sorell causeway would be widened to four traffic lanes.

Both upgrades will include shared walking and cycling paths, and access for recreational fishing will also be retained on McGees Bridge.

To view the feedback received, visit our online interactive map.

2019

In mid-2019 we asked the community for their feedback on options for:

• Sorell Southern Bypass
• Hobart Airport to Midway Point Causeway
• Midway Point intersection Solution.

The first consultation period closed on 28 June 2019. You can view a summary of all the feedback received: Consultation Summary - South East Traffic Solution 2019

After that consultation, we reviewed the community feedback and worked with key stakeholders to draft a revised design for the Hobart Airport to Midway Point Causeway project.

The design was available for public comment in December 2019.

You can view the consultation report for this project here: Hobart Airport Interchange to Midway Point Causeway Stakeholder and Community Feedback Report.

More information, including key issues raised during the consultation and our response, is in the Project Update (DOCX 1.2 MB).

View a full-size version of the map here (PDF 20.0 MB).

We made a commitment to:

• in January 2019, a network of revised bus services was launched in Southern Tasmania. This includes a significant increase in services to a number of locations including Sorell and the Huon Valley
• planning to improve Tasman Highway access ramps at Rosny.

The Sorell to Hobart Planning Study is continuing to identify the most effective and cost-efficient ways of reducing congestion and providing peak period travel time reliability on the Tasman Highway between Sorell and Hobart.