Melbourne currently has 14 freeways.
or ten metropolitan or M routes which make the freeway network.
The majority of these freeways join up, but this is still in
completion. The Hume Freeway link with the Metropolitan Ring
Road is under construction and should be completed by 2005.
The Western Freeway Link to the Western Ring Road is yet to
be constructed.
Overall, Melbourne has a good freeway
system, although there are some problems with them. The Hume,
Western, Calder and Princes Freeways have at grade intersections
in the urban areas just outside Melbourne. These are gradually
being replaced with interchanges, but while they are still
there, the roads are still wrongly called freeways. Another
problem is the missing links, such the city end of the Eastern
Freeway, where traffic will bank up for kilometres in peak
hour traffic. There are plans to construct a link from here
to Tullamarine Freeway (City Link), probably by tunnel or cut
and cover method, although surveys have found that only a small
percentage of drivers who use the Eastern Freeway are on their
way to City Link. Another less important link (in my view),
is the missing link between the Metropolitan Ring Road and
the future Frankston-Mitcham Freeway, or the Eastern Ring Road,
which should be completed by 2008. Plans to link the two sections
via Eltham have been abandoned due to the environmental sensitivety
of the area, and alternate plans are being looked at, possibly
through the Yarra Flats near Heidelberg using a tunnel, and
linking with the Eastern Freeway.
The Mitcham-Frankston Freeway will
be a 40 km freeway linking the Eastern Freeway at Ringwood,
with the Frankston Freeway just north of Frankston. It will
cross the Monash Freeway. As mentioned, it is planned to be
completed by 2008.
For more information and images, click
on the links above.
