Arthur Highway

The Arthur Highway (A9) is a Tasmanian highway which runs from Sorell in the near south to Port Arthur in the far south-east.

Route description
From a roundabout with the Tasman Highway outside Sorell the highway runs northeast to another roundabout roughly housing its former alignment inside Sorell, crossing Iron Creek before turning south-east to Forcett. From there it continues in an easterly direction, crossing the Carlton River, to Copping, where it turns south to Dunalley. Here it crosses the Denison Canal via a swing bridge to the Forestier Peninsula, before continuing south-east to Eaglehawk Neck, the entry to the Tasman Peninsula. After following the southern shore of Eaglehawk Bay to the west the highway turns south and continues in that direction to Port Arthur where it transitions to route B37 (Nubeena Road).

History
Port Arthur (the town) was named for George Arthur, the lieutenant governor of Van Diemen’s Land. It is likely that the name of the highway was derived from this source.

The first "proper" crossing of the Carlton River, near the line now followed by the highway, was opened in 1883. It consisted of multiple wooden bridges and causeways. Work commenced on a concrete bridge, a replacement for all three wooden bridges on a slightly altered alignment, in 1944.

The Denison Canal opened in 1905 with a wooden, manually operated swing bridge. This was replaced by an electrically operated bridge in 1965.

The highway used to end at traffic signals at a rather space-limited dogleg intersection with Tasman Highway and Station Lane in the centre of Sorell. The first stage of the Sorell Bypass opened in 2022, slightly extending Arthur Highway south toward Hobart just outside Sorell, avoiding the town. This allowed traffic to bypass Sorell instead of going right through the town on Tasman Highway or using Parsonage Place (to which was applied a 5-tonne limit, despite accompanying stop-gap improvements and a rename). There is a reserve towards William Street in which Tasman Highway will once bypass the town, but currently the traffic must still use the old Arthur Highway terminus to exit the town northwest.