Ballarat Road, Melbourne

Ballarat Road (formerly known as the Western Highway) is a major urban arterial road in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

History

The road has historically been signed as , but since the opening of the Western Ring Road the Deer Park section has been relegated to , and the newly-completed Deer Park Bypass to between Caroline Springs and Footscray (the inner city section has been decommissioned). The freeway was originally designated in the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan as part of the F12 Freeway corridor.

Geography

Ballarat Road starts at the Footscray junction of Geelong Road in Footscray and continues west through Maidstone, Braybrook, Sunshine, Albion, Cairnlea, Deer Park, Burnside, and the new Caroline Springs estate. The major junctions along the route include the Western Ring Road and the newly-completed Deer Park Bypass.

Transport

Tram route 82 runs along the Footscray section of Ballarat Road, between Gordon & Droop Streets. The Melton railway line from Southern Cross runs parallel to Ballarat Road from Sunshine about 1 km to the south, with stations at Albion, and Deer Park. Several bus routes run along Ballarat Road at various points (routes 215, 216, 220, 223, 256, 400, 406, 408, 410 and 456) with 456 continuing on the Western Freeway to Melton.

With three lanes running in each direction, between Deer Park and the Western Ring Road, this was one of the worst bottlenecks in western Melbourne with traffic reaching 70,000 vehicles per day, with 10 per cent of this consisting of heavy vehicles. This caused delays, in part due to seven traffic signals between the Western Ring Road and the start of the Western Freeway. With the completion of the Deer Park Bypass traffic volumes are predicted to decrease to local traffic standard since its opening on 5 April 2009.

Beyond that, to central Melbourne, losing its dual carriageway status at Braybrook and becoming another clogged two lane arterial road, including one small stretch, which shares the road with trams.

Major intersections and suburbs

See also

• Deer Park Bypass
• Western Highway
• Western Freeway

References