Western Ring Road, Melbourne

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Western Ring Road
Princes Fwy - Western Hwy Western Hwy - Hume Fwy Hume Fwy - Greensborough Bypass
Length	?? kilometres
General direction:	Southwest-Northeast
From:	Altona North, Melbourne
To:	Thomastown, Melbourne
Suburbs along freeway:	Ardeer, Airport West

The Western Ring Road is a freeway in Melbourne connecting the northern suburbs and the western suburbs to various highways and freeways:

the Hume Freeway and Hume Highway;
the Tullamarine Freeway;
the Calder Freeway
the Western Freeway, and;
the West Gate Freeway and Princes Freeway.

It is linked to the eastern suburbs by the shorter Metropolitan Ring Road; the two are collectively called the Ring Road, and are generally considered together on traffic reports. It is signed M80 for its entire length, and is officially a National Highway between the Western Freeway and the Hume Freeway (signified by a National shield for this portion).

It relieves freight traffic from Sydney Road, Pascoe Vale Road and Geelong Road and funnels them to the freeways. With excellent connections to every major interstate and regional freeways, it has encouraged both industrial and residential growth in Melbourne's western suburbs.

A major feature of the road is the EJ Whitten Bridge, named after local football legend Ted Whitten, which crosses the Maribyrnong River.

The road is divided, carries bewteen two and four lanes of traffic in either direction, and has a non-peak speed limit of 100kmh for almost its entire length; between Greensborough Bypass and Plenty Road, the speed limit drops to 90kmh and the road is undivided. During peak hour, much of the Western Ring Road is patrolled by variable speed limits, which typically vary between 60kmh and 100kmh depending upon traffic conditions. Peak-hour travel times typically vary between 30-40 minutes unless there are accidents.