1 August 2017
Working towards a preferred road corridor
North East Link is the missing link that will finally connect Melbourne’s freeway network between the Metropolitan Ring Road and the Eastern Freeway or EastLink.
Our team of specialists is working with government, industry and community groups to understand how different corridors perform and to recommend a preferred option.
In working towards the best corridor, we’ve examined four possible routes to get a better understanding of what’s possible.
A snapshot of what we’ve been working on so far is included in this newsletter.
What we’ve been working on
A project as big as North East Link takes a lot of work to get right.
We’ve been reassessing previous studies, completing new studies, and testing how well potential corridors do (or don’t) perform. Here are some of the studies we’ve been working on:
Local community impacts
We are looking at overall demographics, local and state government strategic plans, trends from Census data and information from peak bodies.
Traffic surveys and modelling
Traffic modelling helps us to understand how North East Link would change traffic conditions in the future. Modelling uses hundreds of variables including population growth, costs like fuel and parking and planned road and public transport upgrades.
Information from VicRoads, local councils and completing surveys of our own will help us work out the best solution. Some of these surveys include counting placarded loads (trucks carrying dangerous goods) and using Bluetooth data to map where vehicles are travelling from and to.
Geotechnical
We’ve gathered existing information from roads, parks and water authorities and completed our own investigations. We know there are areas where geotechnical conditions present challenges for construction or tunnelling.
Economic
Large transport projects can significantly boost economic growth and jobs. Our work so far has focused on understanding how the existing network is constraining growth, and identifying the economic benefits North East Link can bring to the north-east and south-east.
Environment and cultural heritage
Desktop and field studies help identify sensitive areas in each corridor. We’ve also been meeting with local community groups to understand what’s important to them.
Urban design and visual impacts
The urban design team is developing an urban design framework to guide how our planning should reflect local character and identity so that the design of the project fits into the local landscape as well as possible.
Engineering
The engineering team is working to understand the impacts from all the other studies and completing their own to determine how the road alignment, grades, interchanges, tunnels and bridges will work to deliver North East Link.
The team is also looking at what improvements will be needed to existing roads, public transport routes and walking and cycling connections to make North East Link work most effectively.
North East Link Corridors
Download the community update (PDF, 1.1 MB) to see the corridor options.
Our work so far shows that each corridor has both pros and cons. It also shows that all options will include tunnels as well as new surface roads and bridges to connect to the existing road network.
We’ve been assessing how well each corridor performs across a range of measures. A few areas you’ve told us are important to you are shown below.
Areas of interest
- reducing congestion in the north-east
- getting trucks off residential roads in the north-east
- connecting more people to jobs and education
- connecting businesses
- making freight move more efficiently
- improving public transport connections and travel times
- improving connections for pedestrians and cyclists
- ability to protect the environment, culture, heritage and open spaces
- ability to minimise impacts from construction-related traffic.
What is the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB)
The UGB helps direct growth to areas with appropriate infrastructure and services while protecting rural and environmental areas from development pressure.
Corridor A
Download the community update (PDF, 1.1 MB) to see a map of Corridor A.
About this corridor
This corridor would follow the Greensborough Highway south using existing freeway reserve and connect with the Eastern Freeway near Bulleen Road.
What we've found so far
| Score | This corridor is likely to... |
|---|---|
| Performs very well | Provide a more direct alternative to congested roads in the north-east using good connections to the existing road network. |
| Performs very well | Provide opportunities to get trucks off many residential roads in the north-east such as Rosanna Road, Para Road and Fitzsimons Lane. |
| Performs well | Connect people to jobs and education in the north and east, including the La Trobe University and West Heidelberg industrial hub, Box Hill and Ringwood. |
| Performs very well | Provide opportunities for local businesses to access potential customers and workers, including in key existing and emerging employment areas. |
| Performs well | Provide travel time improvements between key freight locations. |
| Performs very well | Be effective at reducing congestion on roads used by public transport and roads used by commuters to get to key stops and stations. Eastern Freeway upgrades would provide an opportunity for improved bus services. |
| Performs very well | Offer potential to divert trucks away from road cycling routes and places where people shop and work. Offer opportunities to improve cycling and walking connections for people in the north-east, including opportunities for new shared use paths. |
| Neutral | Offer opportunities to protect cultural and heritage spaces and the environment such as tunnelling under the Banyule Flats. This corridor would involve some environmental impacts associated with surface works. |
| Neutral | Involve disruptions from upgrades to the Eastern Freeway between Chandler Highway and Springvale Road to cater for additional traffic. Constructing the Eastern Freeway interchange would involve significant disruptions. |
Corridor B
Download the community update (PDF, 1.1 MB) to see a map of Corridor B.
About this corridor
This corridor would provide a direct connection from the M80 to EastLink. It would not require upgrades to the Eastern Freeway.
What we've found so far
| Score | This corridor is likely to... |
|---|---|
| Neutral | Reduce traffic on the Eastern Freeway and Manningham Road but would provide limited congestion relief to key north to south roads such as Fitzsimons Lane. |
| Neutral | Get trucks off some residential roads such as Rosanna Road but increase the number of trucks on others, particularly some connected to the corridor. |
| Performs well | Potentially connect people to jobs and education but access would be widely dispersed along the corridor. |
| Performs well | Provide some opportunities for local businesses to access potential customers and workers in the wider area but would not greatly improve access for businesses located in key current and emerging employment areas. |
| Performs poorly | Offer a direct connection to existing freight routes, however would likely have long inclines that would slow trucks down and reduce efficiency overall. |
| Neutral | Provide limited improvements to key public transport routes or access to public transport interchanges. |
| Performs well | Offer moderate potential to divert trucks away from road cycling routes and places where people shop and work however have limited ability to provide new or enhanced walking and cycling paths. |
| Performs poorly | Offer opportunities to protect some sensitive areas including the Yarra River by tunnelling but would involve some environmental impacts associated with surface works. |
| Neutral | Create disruptions to the transport network including building a highly complex interchange at EastLink, upgrading Springvale Road and Reynolds Road and potentially extending Reynolds Road to connect to the Maroondah Highway. |
Corridor C
Download the community update (PDF, 1.1 MB) to see a map of Corridor C.
About this corridor
Similar to Corridor B, this option would connect to EastLink and not require any upgrades to the Eastern Freeway.
What we've found so far
| Score | This corridor is likely to... |
|---|---|
| Performs well | Reduce congestion on some key north south roads such as Rosanna Road and Fitzsimons Lane. |
| Performs well | Offer an opportunity to get a limited number of trucks off roads in the north-east such as Rosanna Road and Fitzsimons Lane. |
| Performs well | Deliver better access to jobs and education. |
| Performs well | Provide good access to businesses located in major urban centres and for those in the wider metropolitan area but only marginally improve access to key existing and emerging employment areas. |
| Performs poorly | Provide ability to reduce truck travel times, however would likely have long inclines which would slow trucks down and reduce efficiency overall. |
| Performs well | Offer some opportunities to improve public transport by reducing congestion on roads used by public transport. |
| Performs well | Offer potential to divert trucks away from road cycling routes and places where people shop and work however have limited ability to provide new or enhanced walking and cycling paths. |
| Performs poorly | Offer opportunities to protect sensitive areas including the Yarra River by tunnelling but would involve some environmental impacts associated with surface works. |
| Neutral | Involve disruptions to the transport network from works at EastLink, Springvale Road and Reynolds Road and upgrades to Ryans Road. |
Corridor D
Download the community update (PDF, 1.1 MB) to see a map of Corridor D.
This corridor would connect with EastLink south of Ringwood and travel east using part of the proposed Healesville Freeway Reserve.
It was initially considered that this corridor would be suitable for a road with no tunnel to cater for trucks. Preliminary investigations have found that tunnels and bridges would be required to minimise impacts on sensitive areas and avoid steep inclines.
What we've found so far
| Score | This corridor is likely to... |
|---|---|
| Performs poorly | Offer few connections into the existing road network and be unlikely to help reduce congestion in the north-east. |
| Performs poorly | Offer minimal ability to reduce trucks on residential roads in the north-east. |
| Performs very poorly | Extend into an area with a low population density and connect few people to jobs and education opportunities. |
| Performs very poorly | Extend into an area with low levels of business density and activity and offer few businesses opportunities to benefit from improved access to workers and customers. |
| Performs very poorly | Provide an indirect route which would increase travel distances significantly for freight movement. |
| Performs poorly | Achieve no significant improvement to public transport services in the north-east. |
| Neutral | Offer limited opportunities for walking and cycling paths. |
| Performs very poorly | Offer opportunities to protect some sensitive areas including Bend of Islands by tunnelling but would involve some environmental impacts associated with surface works. It would also place development pressure on semi-rural communities outside the urban growth boundary and the green wedge. |
| Performs very well | Be likely to cause minimal construction disruptions to the transport network. It would most likely have two tunnels and the remaining road would be built above ground. The interchanges, other than at EastLink, would be relatively straightforward to build. |
Your input is important
Fixing the missing link in Melbourne’s freeway network will deliver enormous benefits and we’ll be working with the community to get the best possible results.
We’ve already had lots of feedback from communities in the project area and other people who would potentially use North East Link.
Next steps
The next round of community engagement later this year will present the preferred corridor. We are committed to keep talking to communities to help us shape the best possible solution as we proceed into the design phase.
2017 to 2018: Business case
- Technical studies and assessments, talking to communities and selecting the preferred corridor.
2019: Planning and approvals
- Talking to communities, refining the design, start planning studies and environmental approvals