Western Ring Road, Melbourne

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Western Ring Road
Princes Fwy - Western Hwy Western Hwy - Hume Fwy Hume Fwy - Greensborough Bypass
Length	38 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 AFL 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, all of the Western Ring Road between the Western Highway and the Tullamarine Freeway is patrolled by variable speed limits, which typically vary between 60kmh and 100kmh depending upon traffic conditions.

The off-peak travel time for the Ring Road is 25 minutes: 17 minutes on the Western Ring Road and 8 minutes on the Metropolitan Ring Road. Peak-hour travel times typically vary between 30-40 minutes unless there are accidents. The road is generally at its heaviest at the Western Highway, Pascoe Vale Road and Edgars Road in the Greensborough direction; in the Altona direction, Dalton Road and Pascoe Vale Road are the slowest points.

Over the past few years there has been talk about extending the Metropolitan Ring Road from Greensbourgh Road and tunneling it under Greensbourgh and going through the Banyule Flats and connecting to the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen.

[edit] Interchanges

The Western Ring Road officially begins at the Westgate Interchange in Altona North:

Princes Freeway / West Gate Freeway , Laverton North: bi-directional
Boundary Road , Laverton North: bi-directional
Fitzgerald Road, Sunshine West: bi-directional
Western Freeway, Future route number Sunshine West: bi-directional (Currently Under Construction)
Western Highway , Ardeer: bi-directional
Furlong Road, Sunshine: bi-directional
Sunshine Avenue/McIntyre Road , Kealba: bi-directional
Keilor Park Drive , Keilor Park: bi-directional
Calder Freeway , Keilor Park: city-bound only (limited)
Sharps Road, Airport West: bi-directional
Melrose Drive , Airport West: out-bound only
Tullamarine Freeway , Gowenbrae: out-bound only
Pascoe Vale Road , Pascoe Vale: city-bound only
Sydney Road , Fawkner: bi-directional