The Ringwood Bypass is a short stretch of road extending from
EastLink to
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 ...
in
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 ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. It allows the Maroondah Highway to bypass
Eastland Shopping Centre
Eastland Shopping Centre is a super-regional Shopping center, shopping centre complex located in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Ringwood, Victoria, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia. The List of largest shopping centres in Australia, fourth-lar ...
, in the eastern Melbourne suburb of
Ringwood.
Route
The bypass begins at the intersection with
EastLink – with access to the Maroondah Highway west of Ringwood extended south from Eastlink's ramps – and heads east as an 8-lane, dual-carriageway road, adjacent to
Mullum Mullum Creek
Mullum Mullum Creek is a creek in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the main watercourse of the Mullum Mullum Valley, a tributary of the Yarra River and Yarra Valley. For tens of thousands of years it was used ...
, crossing Ringwood Street and Warrandyte Road, before ending at the intersection with the Maroondah Highway east of Ringwood and Mount Dandenong Road. The speed limit is .
History
The first stage of the road began construction in January 1995
and opened in September 1996, starting at Mount Dandenong Road and heading west to Ringwood Street. An extension to the bypass to connect it to the
Eastern Freeway at
Springvale Road in
Donvale was planned in October 2000:
this would include tunnels 1.5 km 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,
with the western half of the Ringwood Bypass connecting directly to it just south of the tunnel portals: this section opened with EastLink in July 2008. In 2003 there was controversy about whether the bypass would be tolled, with the State Government making assurances that it would not be.
The bypass was signed as Metropolitan Route 62 along its entire length when the second stage opened at the same time as EastLink 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
VicRoads is a government joint venture in the state of Victoria, Australia. In the state, it is responsible for driver licensing and vehicle registration. It is owned and operated through a joint venture between the Victorian government an ...
: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Ringwood Bypass (Arterial #6270), beginning at Ringwood Street and ending at
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 ...
through
Ringwood;
the road west of Ringwood Street connects to EastLink, a private tollway not under the jurisdiction of VicRoads.
Major intersections
The entire bypass lies within the
City of Maroondah
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
local government area
A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...
.
See also
References
Highways and freeways in Melbourne
Bypasses in Australia
Transport in the City of Maroondah
Ringwood, Victoria
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