Route 40, Melbourne

Route 40, or the Bell / Springvale State Highway is the longest urban highway in Melbourne (other than the Princes Highway) linking Tullamarine Freeway and the Nepean Highway, allotted metropolitan route .

The highway experiences considerable congestion. Throughout the 1980s and '90s, the Doncaster Road section carried around 50,000 vehicles per hour at peak, this number dropped in 1997 after the extension of the Eastern Freeway.

Several level crossings are located along the highway, in Edithvale, Springvale, Preston and Coburg. With the completion of works in January 2010 to lower the rail line in Nunawading, plus an older one in Heidelberg, there are now two rail-road grade separations along the route.^[1]

The road itself varies in capacity over its length between three-laned dual carriageways and two-way single carriageways. Many junctions such as the Nepean Highway, Princes Highway, Monash Freeway, Eastern Freeway, Hume Highway and Tullamarine Freeway contribute to traffic volumes along Route 40.

Alternate names

There are a variety of street names along the route, many of which are familiar to motorists and used on radio traffic updates, including:

• Bell Street (from Strathmore to Heidelberg)
• Banksia Street (within Heidelberg)
• Manningham Road (from Bulleen to Doncaster)
• Williamsons Road (within central Doncaster)
• Doncaster Road (from Doncaster to Donvale)
• Mitcham Road (within Donvale)
• Springvale Road (from Donvale to Chelsea Heights)
• Edithvale Road (formerly Springvale Road) (from Chelsea Heights to Edithvale)

The original 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan showed the F4 Freeway following the Tullamarine Freeway, Bell and Banksia Streets, to Williamsons Road then joining the F7 Freeway heading south along the Middleborough Road and the Blackburn Road corridor to the F2 Freeway (Dingley Freeway section) between Clayton and Westall Roads (rather than Springvale Road).

Major intersections and suburbs

See also

• List of Melbourne highways

References