Eastern Freeway (Melbourne)
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The Eastern Freeway is an urban freeway in eastern
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, the state capital of
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
, Australia. It is one of the most important freeways in terms of commuting to the city, connecting Alexandra Parade and Hoddle Street in the inner suburbs, with EastLink tollway farther east. It consists of between three and six lanes (including the Hard Shoulder Running lane during peak periods) in each direction, also an inbound
transit lane A high-occupancy vehicle lane (also known as an HOV lane, carpool lane, diamond lane, 2+ lane, and transit lane or T2 or T3 lanes) is a restricted traffic lane reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles with a driver and at least one passenger, i ...
reserved for vehicles with two or more occupants during peak hours. It is continually the widest freeway in Melbourne, with 12 lanes altogether near the
Hoddle Street Hoddle Highway is an urban highway in Melbourne linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, itself a sub-section of Hoddle Main Road. Both of these names are not widely known to most drivers, as the entire allocation is still best known as by t ...
and Alexandra Parade end.


Route

The Eastern Freeway starts at its junction with
Hoddle Street Hoddle Highway is an urban highway in Melbourne linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, itself a sub-section of Hoddle Main Road. Both of these names are not widely known to most drivers, as the entire allocation is still best known as by t ...
, as an eastern continuation of Alexandra Parade, with six lanes eastbound and three lanes westbound. Three more lanes (that provide an exit to Hoddle Street) join the westbound carriageway after it leaves the junction, and after a short distance both directions narrow from six to five lanes in each direction. The freeway narrows again to four lanes in each direction near Chandler Highway and Yarra Bend. The freeway narrows once more to three lanes just before Bulleen Road, and features a concrete barrier rather than the grassy median that was designed to carry a railway. There is a short four lane section between Tram and Blackburn Roads, then three lanes to the end at Springvale Road, and connects to the EastLink toll road to Ringwood and Frankston. The freeway was unique in that it did not connect to any other freeway prior to EastLink being built. The travel time on the Eastern Freeway in each direction is 13 minutes: 5 minutes between Springvale Road and Doncaster Road, and 8 minutes between Doncaster Road and
Hoddle Street Hoddle Highway is an urban highway in Melbourne linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, itself a sub-section of Hoddle Main Road. Both of these names are not widely known to most drivers, as the entire allocation is still best known as by t ...
). In peak period, travel time is between 16–26 minutes. However, during times of extreme congestion, including residual from an incident, the travel time can go well beyond half an hour. The entire freeway has a speed limit. There are no fixed speed cameras, however
Victoria Police Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''. , Victor ...
regularly patrol the full length of the freeway to enforce the speed limit. VicRoads also operates a network of CCTV cameras across the entire length of the freeway and abnormal traffic movements by vehicles are reported to Victoria Police.


History

Construction started on the first section of freeway between Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill and Bulleen Road
Balwyn North Balwyn North, also known as North Balwyn, is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 10 km east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Boroondara and Whitehorse local government areas. Balwyn North rec ...
in 1971 by the
Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) was a public utility board in Melbourne, Australia, set up in 1891 to provide water supply, sanitary sewer, sewerage and sewage treatment functions for the city. In 1992, the MMBW was merged wit ...
(MMBW), but the project and its construction was transferred to be under the direct responsibility of the
Country Roads Board The Country Roads Board was a government authority responsible for the construction and maintenance of main roads in the state of Victoria, Australia between 1913 and 1983. History The Country Roads Board (CRB) was formed to take over respon ...
on 1 July 1974; the section was opened in 1977. The central reservation was designed to be wide enough to cater for a proposed
Doncaster railway line The Doncaster railway line was a long-proposed suburban railway in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, that was anticipated to be built by the late 2020s, as a branch, along with the Hurstbridge line, of the planned future ...
between Hoddle Street and Bulleen Road, bridges over it deliberately kept free of support pylons to allow for it. The bridges were designed by Melbourne engineer Bruce Day, with particular attention paid to the aesthetics of each bridge so that they fitted in their landscape, were related to one another, and also provided a variety and progression of design themes. Land was also reserved from Bulleen Road to Doncaster East to extend the proposed railway line, but the plan fell out of favour in the 1980s and the land was sold. The freeway was extended further south-east through Balwyn North from Bulleen Road to Doncaster Road and opened in 1982, with a major part being the undergrounding of 2.4 km of
Koonung Creek Koonung Creek (or Koonung Koonung Creek) is a small tributary of the Yarra River in Melbourne's east. The creek originates in Nunawading near Springvale Road, and flows to join the Yarra at the border between Ivanhoe East, Bulleen and Balwyn ...
in a precast reinforced concrete conduit to allow more room for the freeway. The freeway was extended for the last time to Donvale in December 1997. The Eastern Freeway was signed as Freeway Route 83 between Alexandra Parade and Bulleen Road upon opening in 1977, then extended eastward to Doncaster Road when that section of freeway was opened in 1982; this was replaced by Metropolitan Route 83 in 1989, itself extended eastward to Donvale when that section of freeway was opened in 1997. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, it was replaced by route M3 when EastLink opened in 2008. The passing of the ''Road Management Act 2004'' granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared Eastern Freeway (Freeway #1830) from Gold Street in Collingwood to Springvale Road in Donvale.


Timeline of construction

*1977 – Initial stage, 9 km from Alexandra Parade to Bulleen Road, opened December 1977 in three stages: Hoddle Street to Chandler Highway; Chandler Highway to Burke Road; Burke Road to Bulleen Road; total cost (including associated works in Hoddle Street) of A$84 million. *1982 – Second stage, extended 3km from Bulleen Road to Doncaster Road, opened 3 June 1982, by Minister for Transport, the Hon S M Crabb MP. Two lanes in each direction, plus emergency stopping lanes, at a cost of $24 million. *1997 – Third stage, extended 7km from Doncaster Road to Springvale Road, opened December 1997, at a cost of $250 million. The sound barriers built in Stage 3 designed by architects Wood Marsh/Pels Innes Neilson Kosloff won the
Australian Institute of Architects The Australian Institute of Architects, officially the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (abbreviated as RAIA), is Australia's professional body for architects. Its members use the post-nominals FRAIA (Fellow), ARAIA (Associate Member) an ...
Victorian Architecture Medal The Victorian Architecture Medal is the highest honour awarded annually by the Victoria Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) and has been awarded 38 consecutive times since 1987. The Medal was originally known as the ‘Street ...
and the national Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design in 1998. The first and second stages were controversial and met much opposition due to the first being constructed through the middle of
Yarra Bend Park Yarra Bend Park is a park in the Melbourne suburbs of Kew and Fairfield. Located 4 km northeast of Melbourne's CBD, it is the largest area of natural bushland left in inner Melbourne. The most notable feature of the park is the Yarra R ...
and the second stage to Doncaster Road through parkland now named
Koonung Creek Reserve Koonung Creek Reserve is a linear park in the suburb of Balwyn North, Melbourne, Australia. It follows the path of the Eastern Freeway (Melbourne), Eastern Freeway from Bulleen Road in the west to Doncaster Road to the east. History The area ...
. In recent years, amidst growing congestion problems and increased awareness of unsustainable methods of transport in Melbourne, there has been massive local council lobbying (by Melbourne, Yarra and Manningham) and public pressure placed on the State Government for the Doncaster railway line to be constructed. One last 5km extension to the Eastern Freeway, to terminate at the intersection of
Maroondah Highway Maroondah Highway (also known as Whitehorse Road from Deepdene to Surrey Hills) is a major east–west thoroughfare in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and a highway connecting the north-eastern fringes of Melbourne to Mansfield, at the lowe ...
and Mount Dandenong Road via the eastern half of the
Ringwood Bypass The Ringwood Bypass is a short stretch of road extending from EastLink to Maroondah Highway in Melbourne, Australia. It allows the Maroondah Highway to bypass Eastland Shopping Centre, in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Ringwood. Route The by ...
in Ringwood, was planned in October 2000: this would include tunnels 1.5km in length and a connection with the planned Scoresby Freeway (later EastLink), cost $326 million, and was scheduled for completion in mid-2005. Instead, the Scoresby Freeway and the planned Eastern Freeway extension was merged into the Eastlink project, and the remainder of the Eastern Freeway reservation was built into the western half of the Ringwood Bypass, which opened in July 2008. Eastlink connected the freeway to the Monash, Mornington Peninsula and Frankston Freeways.


1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan

Originally designated F-19 under the
1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan The 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan was a road and rail transport plan for Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia, instituted by Henry Bolte's state government. Most prominently, the plan recommended the provision of an extens ...
during its construction in the early 1970s, it was supposed to be linked to the then-new
Tullamarine Freeway The Tullamarine Freeway (commonly referred to as The Tulla), is a major urban freeway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, linking Melbourne Airport to the Melbourne City Centre. It carries up to 210,000 vehicles per day and is one of Australia ...
, as well as taking traffic off the
Maroondah Highway Maroondah Highway (also known as Whitehorse Road from Deepdene to Surrey Hills) is a major east–west thoroughfare in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and a highway connecting the north-eastern fringes of Melbourne to Mansfield, at the lowe ...
. Protests from inner Melbourne suburbs residents led to it being terminated at
Hoddle Street Hoddle Highway is an urban highway in Melbourne linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, itself a sub-section of Hoddle Main Road. Both of these names are not widely known to most drivers, as the entire allocation is still best known as by t ...
.


April 2020 crash

On 22 April 2020, a drunk truck driver, Mohinder Singh, crashed his truck into a
Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 model series (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in ) is a family of German two-door, high performance Rear-engine design, rear-engine sports cars, introduced in September 1964 by Porsche, Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. Now in it ...
and two police cars. Four police officers in the police cars were killed. The driver of the Porsche, Richard Pusey, was also drunk and was later arrested for running away from the scene and for filming the dying police officers, later pleading guilty to three charges, and was jailed for 10 months. On 14 April 2021, truck driver Singh was sentenced to at least 22 years in prison by the
Supreme Court of Victoria The Supreme Court of Victoria is the highest court in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited and inherent jurisdiction within the state. The Supreme Court compri ...
over the manslaughter of four police officers.


Safety

Despite the inherent danger in small and large vehicles travelling at high speeds, the freeway is generally considered one of the safest in Melbourne, with minimal changes of elevation, a flowing route, ample shoulder space and well-maintained safety barriers. Long sections of the freeway suffer from low lighting levels due to its route and proximity to residential areas. In the seven years preceding and including 2009, six people died in a section of the freeway known as the ''Bulleen Bend''. This is the tightest bend in the freeway's length, between the Bulleen and Doncaster Road interchanges. Despite the relatively tight bend and limit, there were few safety barriers on the extremities of the road surface, leaving nothing between the cars and the trees on the road shoulder. Flexible barriers were installed along lengths of the freeway in an attempt to improve safety. These measures reduced the relative risk of casualty crashes by approximately 75 percent.


Widening and upgrades (North East Link)

The Eastern Freeway is one of the primary freeways feeding into the CBD. Despite decades of road widenings and infrastructure investment, it experiences periods of traffic congestion. In 2016,
Premier of Victoria The premier of Victoria is the head of government of the state of Victoria in Australia. The premier leads the Cabinet of Victoria and selects its ministers. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, must be a member of the Vic ...
Daniel Andrews Daniel Michael Andrews (born 6 July 1972) is an Australian former politician who served as the 48th premier of Victoria from 2014 to 2023. He held office as the leader of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2010 and ...
announced the construction of a new tolled freeway to connect to the Eastern Freeway. Termed the
North East Link The North East Link is an under construction 10–kilometre tolled highway scheme in Melbourne, Australia. It will connect the Metropolitan Ring Road at Greensborough, Victoria, Greensborough with the Eastern Freeway (Melbourne), Easter ...
, the main component of the project is two tunnels connecting the
M80 Ring Road The M80 Ring Road (also known simply as the Ring Road or by the names of its constituent parts; the Western Ring Road and the Metropolitan Ring Road) is a partially complete urban freeway ring road around Melbourne, Australia. This article wi ...
in the north-eastern suburb of Greensborough to the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen Road in
Balwyn North Balwyn North, also known as North Balwyn, is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 10 km east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Boroondara and Whitehorse local government areas. Balwyn North rec ...
. It is anticipated to add up to 135,000 extra vehicles to the Eastern Freeway and surrounding suburbs every day. One component of the project is widening the entire freeway from Hoddle Street to Springvale Road. 45 kilometres of new lanes will be added, including six 'express' lanes between Middleborough Road and the
Chandler Highway Chandler Highway is a short road in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, connecting Alphington over the Yarra River and Eastern Freeway to Kew. Its total length is less than 2 kilometres, leading to the claim that it is "the shortest highw ...
. In some locations east of Bulleen Road, it will be more than doubled in width from nine lanes to 20 lanes, making it one of the widest roads in the world. Construction on the first section to be upgraded between Burke Road and Tram Road will begin in 2024 with the other stages to follow in 2025. The upgrade is anticipated to be completed by 2028 to coincide with the opening of the tunnels.


Western extension (East West Link)

The Eastern Freeway has no connecting freeways at its western end in Clifton Hill. As a result, traffic from the Eastern Freeway is released westward along Alexandra Parade and north–south along Hoddle Street. There have been proposals to extend the freeway further west to connect with the
CityLink CityLink is a network of tollways in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, linking the Tullamarine Freeway, Tullamarine, West Gate Freeway, West Gate and Monash Freeways and incorporating Bolte Bridge, Burnley Tunnel and other ...
network and ultimately to the Western Ring Road at Sunshine West, but none have been constructed to date. On 1 March 2007, the Victorian Government announced a study linking the major freeways conducted by international transport expert
Sir Rod Eddington Sir Roderick Ian Eddington (born 2 January 1950) is an Australian businessman. He was first appointed to the board of News Corporation in 1999 and still serves on the News Corp board, as well as the board of another of Rupert Murdoch's companie ...
. The Eddington Transport Report was released in early 2008 and outlined 20 main recommendations for the city, including a tunnel from the Eastern Freeway to CityLink under Royal Park. The newly elected state Liberal government announced in 2013 that they would commence construction of the tunnel. This announcement sparked heated public debate and protests both in favour and against the proposal until the newly elected
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
government renounced the contracts signed by the previous government in 2015 and scrapped the project. One aspect of the East West Link proposal was to widen the Eastern Freeway between Hoddle Street and Tram Road in Doncaster. While the exact details of the proposal were not released before the project was abandoned, this was opposed by residents and councils along its length.


Exits and interchanges


Freeway map


See also

*
Doncaster railway line The Doncaster railway line was a long-proposed suburban railway in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, that was anticipated to be built by the late 2020s, as a branch, along with the Hurstbridge line, of the planned future ...
*
Doncaster busway The Eastern Busway is a bus rapid transit line under construction in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. It will operate alongside the Eastern Freeway, from Hoddle Street in Abbotsford to Doncaster Road in Doncaster. As a part of ...
*
Freeways in Australia Australian Capital Territory Canberra region * Federal Highway - Between State Border with New South Wales, and Antill Street Roundabout. M23 designation diverts at the Majura Parkway interchange, while Federal Highway continues as A23. * ...
* Freeways in Victoria * Road transport in Victoria


References

{{Yarra River Crossings Highways and freeways in Melbourne Transport in the City of Yarra Transport in the City of Boroondara Transport in the City of Whitehorse Transport in the City of Manningham