Western Ring Road, Melbourne

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Western Ring Road Metropolitan Ring Road
Formerly
Length	38 km
General direction	Southwest-Northeast
From	Princes Freeway / West Gate Freeway, Laverton North, Melbourne
Major suburbs	Sunshine West, Ardeer, Cairnlea, St. Albans, Keilor East, Keilor Park, Tullamarine, Airport West, Gowanbrae, Campbellfield, Thomastown, Bundoora
To	Greensborough Highway, Greensborough, Melbourne
Established	1990
Allocation	Princes / West Gate Freeway - Western Highway: Western Highway - Hume Freeway: Hume Freeway - Greensborough Highway:
Major Junctions	Future Western Freeway Ballarat Road Calder Freeway Tullamarine Freeway Sydney Road Hume Freeway Plenty Road for full list see Exits and Intersections.

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

• the Hume Freeway;
• the Tullamarine Freeway;
• the Calder Freeway
• the Western Freeway and future Deer Park Bypass, 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).

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

Over the past few years there have been discussions about extending the Metropolitan Ring Road from Greensbourgh Road and tunnelling it under Greensbourgh and going through the Banyule Flats and connecting to the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen. A study has been initiated by VicRoads to supplement the Western Ring Road with an Outer Metropolitan Ring Road.

Contents 1 History 2 Missing Section 3 Purpose 4 Route 5 Exits and Intersections 6 See also

[edit] History

The Ring Road project was proposed in 1969, under the 1969 Melbourne Transport Plan and proposal at the time was documented in almost every edition of the Melway Street Directory since 1969. Construction of the Western Ring Road began in 1989 with work on the Broadmeadows section, and was completed with the final link between the Calder and Tullamarine Freeways. Under the Keating Commonwealth government, a total $555 million was provided by the Federal Government for the Western Ring Road, with a $76 million contribution from the Victorian Government; and this allowed the opening to occur in 1999.

The project is generally divided into 3 sections:

Western Ring Road This is the section between the West Gate Freeway and the Hume Freeway. 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).

Northern Ring Road This section is currently named Metropolitan Ring Road although many people do not know that is its current official title. It is located between the Hume Freeway and the Greensborough Highway.

Eastern Ring Road This section is currently under construction, as the EastLink tollway. It is located between the Eastern Freeway and the Frankston Freeway.

[edit] Missing Section

Currently, the easternmost point of the Northern Ring Road terminates at Greenborough at the Greensborough Bypass. There are no announced plans to extend the road further to the Eastern Ring Road (Eastern Freeway or Eastlink) or to any other roads in the South East of Melbourne. As a result, it is unclear when or even if the Metropolitan Ring Road will ever be totally complete.

While the route for this missing section is unclear, it would take the road through areas that are environmentally and politically sensitive, such as Eltham, Templestowe or Warrandyte. The link to the east may well have be provided by other means, such as the proposed tunnel to connect the Eastern Freeway with Melbourne's west.

If completed it will provide a circumferential route around Melbourne starting from Altona and ending in Frankston. The resulting beltway will be similar to the size and scope of Sydney's Orbital Motorway.

[edit] Purpose

Much controversy surrounds the Metropolitan Ring Road project in Melbourne in many different topics including; environmental, economical, social, private & public transportation and both positive and negative aspects are well represented for each topic by many people and groups small and large. This has led to heavy debate in all areas of society in Melbourne from political and media to general public views and conversations.

The road serves various uses:

• integrating the metropolitan area by linking middle and outer suburbs
• assisting circumferential travel through the middle suburbs as opportunities for cross town movement are limited
• linking the growing populations in the south-east and west suburbs to jobs and economic opportunities throughout the metropolitan area
• providing access to Melbourne Airport, the ports of Melbourne and Geelong, and rail freight terminals, from all parts of Melbourne and from across the State
• provide good access to the whole of the Melbourne metropolitan area to and from country Victoria and interstate.

[edit] Route

The Western Ring Road is 28km long, and the Metropolitan Ring Road is 10km long, for a total length of 38km. The freeway changes its name at the Hume Freeway (Craigieburn Bypass). The freeway had previously changed its name at Sydney Road, but that point shifted with the opening of the Bypass, extending the Western Ring Road by 2km.

A major feature of the road is the EJ Whitten Bridge over the Maribyrnong River, named after AFL player Ted Whitten.

The road is divided, carries between two and four lanes of traffic in either direction, and has a non-peak speed limit of 100 km/h for almost its entire length; between Greensborough Bypass and Plenty Road, the speed limit drops to 90 km/h and the road is undivided (although there are still two lanes in either direction). 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 60 km/h and 100 km/h depending upon traffic conditions.

The off-peak travel time for the Ring Road is 25 minutes: 19 minutes on the Western Ring Road and 6 minutes on the Metropolitan Ring Road. Peak-hour travel times typically vary between 30-40 minutes, unless there are accidents which can stretch travel times beyond an hour. 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.

[edit] Exits and Intersections

Western / Metropolitan Ring Road
Northbound exits	Distance from Greensborough Highway (km)	Distance from West Gate Freeway (km)	Southbound exits
End Metropolitan Ring Road continues as Greensborough Highway to Kinglake / Heidelberg	0	38	Start Metropolitan Ring Road continues from Greensborough Highway
Bundoora Plenty Road	2	36	Bundoora Plenty Road
Thomastown Dalton Road	5	33	Thomastown Dalton Road
EPPING RAIL LINE	6	32	EPPING RAIL LINE
Thomastown Edgars Road	7	31	Thomastown Edgars Road
End Western Ring Road continues as Metropolitan Ring Road	8	30	End Metropolitan Ring Road continues as Western Ring Road
Campbellfield Hume Freeway			Campbellfield Hume Freeway
Campbellfield Sydney Road	10	28	Campbellfield Sydney Road
UPFIELD RAIL LINE			UPFIELD RAIL LINE
NORTH EAST RAIL LINE	12	26	NORTH EAST RAIL LINE
Glenroy Pascoe Vale Road			no exit
Tullamarine Tullamarine Freeway	15	23	Tullamarine Tullamarine Freeway
no exit			Tullamarine Melrose Drive
Tullamarine Airport Drive / Westfield Drive	17	21	Tullamarine Airport Drive / Westfield Drive
Keilor Park Calder Freeway	19	19	Keilor Park Calder Freeway
Keilor East Keilor Park Drive	21	17	Keilor East Keilor Park Drive
St Albans McIntyre Road / Sunshine Avenue	25	13	St Albans McIntyre Road / Sunshine Avenue
St Albans Furlong Road	27	11	St Albans Furlong Road
BENDIGO RAIL LINE	28	10	BENDIGO RAIL LINE
End continues as	30	8	End continues as
Cairnlea Ballarat Road			Cairnlea Ballarat Road
WESTERN RAIL LINE	31	7	WESTERN RAIL LINE
Derrimut Deer Park Bypass	33	5	Derrimut Deer Park Bypass
Derrimut Fitzgerald Road			Derrimut Fitzgerald Road
MOBIL SERVICE CENTRE	36	2	MOBIL SERVICE CENTRE
Laverton North Boundary Road	37	1	Laverton North Boundary Road
no exit	38	0	Laverton North Princes Freeway
Start Western Ring Road continues from West Gate Freeway			End Western Ring Road continues as West Gate Freeway to Melbourne

[edit] See also

• Road transport in Victoria