Westall Road

Westall Road
Springvale Bypass
Victoria
General information
Type Road
Length 7 km (4 mi)
Route number(s) State Route 49
Major junctions
North end
 
South end
Location(s)
Major suburbs Clayton South, Dingley Village

Westall Road (also known as the Springvale Bypass) is a major north to south thoroughfare west of Springvale, Victoria, Australia.

Starting at the intersection with Princes Highway in Clayton, the road travels in a southerly direction, intersecting with Centre Road, an overpass of the Cranbourne and Pakenham railway lines and an intersection with Heatherton Road, all with a speed limit of 80 km/h. Westall Road then continues on as a semi-freeway standard road along the reservation of the Dingley Freeway with a speed limit of 100 km/h. It continues as the Dandenong Bypass at Springvale Road and continues east to Cranbourne and Gippsland.

History

Historically before the reconstruction and extension works, Westall Road ran as a semi-major road from just south of the Dandenong Rail line at Westall Station to Heatherton Road, and as a minor road from the railway line to Centre Road. The previous thoroughfare consisted of taking McNaughton Road, Kombi Road and Rayhur Street.

The extensions north to Princes Highway and south to Springvale Road were designed to reduce traffic which travels through Springvale via Springvale Road, as it has a 70 km/h speed limit for most of its length in which it is bypassed as well as having a reduced 60 km/h limit through the Springvale shopping area with this dropping to 40 km/h during school times. Traffic is further delayed by the level crossing adjacent to Springvale Station, and the particularly slow Springvale Junction. The upgrade of Westall Road has allowed north-south through traffic to avoid this area.

Westall Road Extension

The Westall Road Extension runs along the Dingley Arterial route from Heatherton Road to Springvale Road in Springvale South. It commenced construction in 1994 and was finished in 1995. The extension is also known as the Springvale Bypass.

The works involved creating a 2.8 km divided four lane (two lanes each way) semi-freeway standard road to bypass the busy and congested centre of Springvale. The extension involves constructing part of the Dingley Freeway to the future site of an interchange with Westall Road before travelling along a temporary alignment to join up with the extended Westall Road south of Heatherton Road. A speed limit of 100 km/h applies between Heatherton Road and Rowan Road, while an 80 km/h limit applies on the approaches to Heatherton and Springvale Roads. A bicycle path was completed along the entire length of the road.

Associated works included a northern extension of Westall Road from Rayhur Street, Springvale to Princes Highway in Clayton. Westall Road from Heatherton Road to Centre Road consisted of a two lane undivided road while the road from Centre Road to the Princes Highway was constructed as a six lane divided road. In order to enable Westall Road to truly serve as a high capacity alternative route to Springvale Road, the level crossing with the Cranbourne / Pakenham railway line was grade separated in conjunction with duplication works to upgrade Westall Road to a six lane divided road between Heatherton Road and Centre Road. These works were completed by April 2001.[1]

See also

Australian roads portal

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, November 15, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.