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Summary of document

The Corridor Assessment document includes the following:

• Overview
• Community consultation
• Project Objectives and Guiding Principles
• Policy context
• Strategic drivers in the north east
• Options assessment framework
• Assessing corridor options
• Strategic merit test
• Rapid appraisal
• Detailed appraisal

Executive Summary

North East Link – Objectives and Principles

In 2016, Infrastructure Victoria released its 30 Year Infrastructure Strategy, identifying North East Link as the highest priority infrastructure project in Victoria. Infrastructure Victoria noted that the link will enhance access to major suburban business and employment centres, improve orbital road connectivity across Melbourne and boost the capacity of the city’s freight network.

In October 2017, the Victorian Government’s five-year Victorian Infrastructure Plan confirmed North East Link as one of several ‘catalyst’, state-shaping infrastructure projects designed to stimulate economic growth, create jobs and deliver positive, long-term benefits for Victorians.

Investigations into potential corridors for North East Link began in early 2017.

North East Link Authority (NELA) sought early input from the community, local councils, non- government organisations and government agencies on key issues such as community values, current traffic issues and transport-related problems in the north east. In addition to the transport system objectives of the Transport Integration Act, these views have contributed to the setting of Project Objectives and Guiding Principles for North East Link, which are being used to focus the investigation of corridor options and guide the overall development of the project.

Reflecting the views and information provided during NELA’s community consultation, North East Link has a strong focus on supporting business and jobs growth in communities across Melbourne's north, east and south east, while also improving cross-city connectivity and helping to address critical traffic, freight and amenity issues.

Project Objectives and Guiding Principles reflecting this focus were established and used to assess potential corridors for the new link.

Project Objectives

Objective 1

Improve business access and growth in Melbourne's north, east and south east

Objective 2

Improve household access to employment and education in Melbourne's north, east and south east

Objective 3

Improve freight and supply chain efficiency across the north, east and south east

Objective 4

Improve access, amenity and safety for communities in the north east

Guiding Principles

Guiding Principle 1

Minimise impacts on communities

Guiding Principle 2

Minimise impacts on environmental and cultural assets

Guiding Principle 3

Minimise impacts during the construction phase

Guiding Principle 4

Optimise the efficient use of resources

The project corridor

Following a detailed assessment of potential benefits and impacts, Corridor A - from the Eastern Freeway at Nunawading to the M80 at Greensborough –was selected as the North East Link corridor. The main reasons for this assessment include:

• This corridor best meets the Project Objectives and was assessed as performing very well against the Guiding Principles when compared to all other corridor options.
• This corridor provides the best opportunity for connections to the existing road network that respond to travel demand through, in and out of the north east of Melbourne. This means that Corridor A attracts the most through traffic to the new link out of all the options considered and therefore reduces demand on local arterial roads.
• It provides better connectivity for all freight journeys and serves a greater number of freight catchments for trucks travelling across the north, east and south east of Melbourne. This means that the corridor provides the best opportunity to remove trucks from local roads in the north east.
• It works together with the existing road network in the north east, resulting in the greatest ability of all the options considered to reduce traffic on existing arterial networks and providing opportunities to improve conditions for more local journeys and on-road public transport.
• By connecting close to areas of greater activity, the corridor provides better access for businesses and residents in the north, east and south east to workers, jobs and services. It provides the greatest improvement in business access to labour markets of all the corridor options considered, particularly the opportunity to stimulate jobs growth in the La Trobe National Employment and Innovation Cluster (NEIC) and between the Broadmeadows, Epping, Ringwood and Box Hill Metropolitan Activity Centres (MACs).
• In enhancing the Eastern Freeway, to cater for additional North East Link traffic, the project also addresses existing issues in the operation of the freeway, future proofing it for growth.
• It provides the best opportunity for improvements to public transport on the existing network and the opportunity to implement an integrated Doncaster Busway solution along the Eastern Freeway.
• It provides the best opportunity to connect and expand existing walking and cycling facilities in the north east.
• Corridor A offers the most cost-effective solution and the maximum benefits.

Identifying potential corridors

Potential corridors for North East Link were identified by:

• Assessing existing and future traffic conditions and transport movements
• Investigating existing road corridors and utilities easements that could be used for potential corridors
• Identifying potential corridors and constraints to these corridors (such as difficult terrain, sensitive environmental areas and important community assets)
• Considering treatments such as tunnels to avoid sensitive environmental and urban areas or to mitigate surface impacts
• Considering likely geology and geotechnical influences and areas suitable for tunnel construction
• Identifying opportunities for connectivity with the existing road network
• Considering current and future patterns of land use and development in the north east.

A surface road only option through any part of the north east was discounted due to potential impacts on areas of environmental sensitivity and existing development in all areas of the north east.

Assessing corridor options

Guided by the Australian Transport Assessment and Planning Guidelines, a three-tiered approach was adopted to assess and narrow down these options to select a corridor for the project:

• Stage 1: Strategic merit test – a strategic assessment of a corridor’s alignment with the Project Objectives.
• Stage 2: Rapid appraisal – an initial indicative assessment of the scale of a corridor’s benefits and costs, as assessed against the Project Objectives and Guiding Principles
• Stage 3: Detailed appraisal – a more detailed assessment of a corridor’s benefits and costs, as assessed against Project Objectives and Guiding Principles.

As each stage progressed, the assessment of corridor options considered feedback, information provided and questions raised by the community and stakeholders, alongside evidence from technical investigations. Priority issues identified and considered included:

• Reducing congestion on key roads in Melbourne’s north-east
• Removing trucks that don’t need to be on roads in Melbourne’s north-east
• Providing better connections for people to access existing and new jobs and education opportunities
• Helping businesses better connect to each other and to workers across Melbourne
• Making freight journeys more efficient and reliable
• Improving public transport connections and travel times
• Improving connections for pedestrians and cyclists
• Protecting the environment, culture, heritage and open spaces
• Minimising the impacts from construction-related traffic as the project is being built.

The following sections discuss the corridor options in the order in which they were discounted as the options assessment progressed towards selection of the corridor for North East Link.

Corridor D

Corridor D was not selected as an appropriate corridor for North East Link. The main reasons for this assessment include:

• The corridor route is too long and circuitous. As a result, it would not address existing or future travel patterns, meaning that it would not attract enough traffic and not result in any reduction in traffic on the existing arterial network.
• The road network in this area is rural in nature and very steep, and does not provide for appropriate connections to a new motorway.
• The corridor’s location outside the Urban Growth Boundary in areas of very low population density (now and in the future) limits the potential for the project to provide better access for businesses or workers. It also has the potential to generate development pressure in Green Wedge areas outside the boundary, which does not align with the objectives of Plan Melbourne.

Corridor B

Corridor B was not selected as an appropriate corridor for North East Link. The main reasons for this assessment include:

• The transport solution provided by this corridor is not satisfactory as it is likely to attract more east-west oriented trips and has limited ability to provide relief to the critically congested north-south arterial road network.
• Due to the unbalanced spacing location of the interchanges, feeder roads are likely to be affected to a greater extent as traffic would need to travel further distances to access the new link’s alignment.
• There would be significant impacts on utility services, including high voltage power lines that cannot be moved underground without incurring substantial costs.
• Extensive tunnelling requirements would lead to a very high capital and operational cost solution. Once these corridors were set aside, a detailed assessment was carried out on Corridor A and Corridor C. This assessment set aside Corridor C, and the results of this assessment are summarised below. Further information on the assessment is contained in Appendix D.

Corridor C

Following a detailed assessment of potential benefits and impacts, Corridor C was set aside. The main reasons for this assessment include:

• The available connections to the existing road network from this corridor are not well suited to the levels of traffic likely to be using them, resulting in lower use of a route through this corridor and less trips being attracted from the existing network (compared to Corridor A).
• While the corridor supports long-distance trips between the north and south east of Melbourne, it provides limited support for the key origins and destinations of the wide range of trips travelling into and out of the north east, both now and into the future, (compared to Corridor A).
• The corridor provides little support for or integration with the strategic arterial road network through the north east, resulting in lower levels of traffic on the new link and providing less truck traffic relief on roads in the north east (compared to Corridor A).
• The location of the corridor weaves across the Urban Growth Boundary through Green Wedge areas of low population density and has the potential to generate development pressure in these areas, contrary to the objectives of Plan Melbourne.
• Extensive tunnelling requirements would lead to a significantly higher cost solution.

North East Link corridor implementation

During community consultation conducted by NELA in August and early September 2017, the community sought further detail about several issues relating to a potential Corridor A:

• Performance of the Eastern Freeway
• Management of environmental impacts
• Maintaining and improving connectivity for communities along the corridor
• Supporting public transport in the north east.

Further information on these issues is provided below.

Improving the performance of the Eastern Freeway

Daily weekday traffic volumes along the Eastern Freeway range from 128,000 to 178,000 vehicles per day, with the busiest section between Middleborough Road and Tram Road.

Congestion occurs at a number of locations along the freeway, which result in traffic breakdown and can be attributed largely to merging and weaving at the freeway interchanges, the capacity of the freeway ramps and some mid-block areas where capacity is constrained.

In addition to the freeway on-ramps operating at capacity, the short distances between each of the interchanges affect the performance of the Eastern Freeway. Freeways operate efficiently when lane changing is minimised – the short distances between many of the Eastern Freeway interchanges result in a greater amount of lane changing within a relatively short section of road.

There are 5 interchanges on the Eastern Freeway within a 5.5km length of road between Elgar Road and Springvale Road. As a result, a high degree of pressure is placed on the left-most lanes of the freeway, as vehicles position themselves to exit the freeway in advance of their exits while, at the same time, traffic is merging onto the freeway. The combination of excessive lane changing and merging and weaving of traffic reduces the performance of the freeway, leading to reduced vehicle speeds and congestion during peak periods of demand.

Traffic flow in the vicinity of the EastLink tunnels also often breaks down in the peak periods, affecting the freeway’s performance and creating queues. However, the flow breakdown that occurs in the tunnels is not due to a lack of capacity in the tunnel, but rather upstream and downstream bottlenecks at Springvale Road and Ringwood Bypass.

As the Eastern Freeway and EastLink are not Managed Motorways, there is no ramp metering to control merging and weaving movements. Ramp metering regulates the rate and spacing of traffic entering onto the freeway with traffic lights and is proven to improve the overall performance (vehicle speeds and capacity) of a motorway network.

Capacity east of Bulleen Road

As North East Link connects into the existing Eastern Freeway at Bulleen Road, demand for travel along the Eastern Freeway east of Bulleen Road is expected to increase significantly: around 75% of southbound traffic on North East Link will head east when joining the Eastern Freeway and around 30% of this traffic will continue on through the EastLink tunnels.

To cater for this increased demand, the project will upgrade and modernise the Eastern Freeway to significantly increase traffic carrying capacity and improve traffic flow.

The project will use intelligent transport systems, including Managed Motorway systems, to manage traffic flow and provide express lanes to improve unimpeded travel. Between Station Street and Burke Road, traffic will be split into main ‘expressway’ lanes in the centre of the freeway, physically separated from ‘collector-distributor’ lanes on the outside. The collector-distributor lanes will provide for the separation of traffic flows: access to the various interchanges along the corridor will be provided by the collector-distributor carriageways, while longer trips will be able to use the express lanes. This will reduce traffic turbulence at on- and off-ramps and optimise traffic performance. This combination of intelligent transport systems and state-of-the-art design will provide a significant uplift in carrying capacity for the Eastern Freeway, bringing it up to modern standards.

Implementation of Managed Motorway systems and the upgrade of the Springvale Road inbound on-ramp will improve traffic flow in the EastLink tunnels. Tunnel traffic will no longer need to slow down significantly to allow vehicles from Springvale Road to enter the Eastern Freeway, reducing the likelihood of a ‘shockwave’ of congestion travelling back into the EastLink tunnels and providing a significant capacity uplift for future traffic.

Capacity west of Bulleen Road

Demand for travel along the Eastern Freeway west of Bulleen Road is expected to increase moderately, with approximately 25% of southbound traffic on North East Link heading west. As shown in the figure on the next page, 5% of this southbound traffic on North East Link is destined for Hoddle Street and 4% for Alexandra Parade.

To cater for this traffic, additional lanes on the Eastern Freeway west of Bulleen Road will be provided to enable smooth entry and exit movements. Implementing Managed Motorway technology and operations for the full length of the Eastern Freeway will also improve traffic flow and performance.

In total, factoring in growth over time, there is expected to be no net increase in traffic to the CBD, with an increase of around 3% in traffic at the western end of the Eastern Freeway.

Doncaster Busway

Buses are an important component of the Eastern Freeway corridor, and the modernisation of the freeway will also improve bus travel times and reliability. The reconfiguration includes the full separation of Doncaster Busway services from Hoddle Street to Doncaster Road by building a separated bus-only carriageway in the central median from east of Hoddle Street to east of Burke Road and then on the north side of the freeway to Doncaster Road. These dedicated bus lanes will connect to Victoria Park and significantly improve travel time reliability for bus services along the Eastern Freeway into the future.

Managing environmental and social impacts

Protecting the Yarra River, its tributaries, floodplains and surrounding environment – along with culturally significant sites such as Bolin Bolin Billabong – is a core requirement for North East Link and has been a key consideration in developing the project.

NELA has identified environmentally and culturally sensitive areas that are highly valued by the both the Traditional owners of the land, the Wurundjeri people, and the local community in the corridor. These areas include:

• The Yarra River and its floodplain, incorporating Banyule Flats and Bolin Bolin Billabong, have high cultural significance to the Wurundjeri people. These are also areas of high ecological value and which have retained important patches of remnant native vegetation and areas of high value habitat
• The Yarra River and its tributaries, featuring public parks and recreational areas of high value to the broader community
• Habitat for identified threatened species in the vicinity of Bolin Bolin Billabong, the Simpson Barracks and the Western Ring Road road reserve
• Waterways including the Yarra River, Plenty River, Koonung Creek, Banyule Creek and Merri Creek.

To protect areas of environmental and cultural significance that are also highly valued by the community along Corridor A, no-go zones were designated for the Banyule Flats, Bolin Bolin Billabong and Heide Museum of Modern Art. This meant that, in developing concepts for the project, modification of the existing surface in these zones was not considered acceptable, either permanently or during construction. As a result, North East Link will feature a tunnel beneath the Yarra River with a northern portal (tunnel entrance) north of Lower Plenty Road and a southern portal south of the Veneto Club, instead of an above ground or surface road design. This will avoid impacts on the environmentally and culturally sensitive Yarra River valley, Banyule Flats and Bolin Bolin Billabong.

The Victorian Government is committed to the protection of the Yarra River, as demonstrated by the Yarra River Protection Act (Wilip-gin Birrarun murron) that comes into effect on 1 December 2017. The Yarra River Action Plan, developed in partnership with the Wurundjeri Tribe Land and Compensation and Cultural Heritage Council (Wurundjeri Council), sets out the actions that will be taken to achieve the objectives of the Yarra River Protection Act and meet the Government’s commitment to protecting the river.

Maintaining and improving connectivity for communities along the corridor

North East Link will maintain existing bicycle and pedestrian connectivity across the corridor. In a number of places, connectivity will be improved. Where the removal of an existing bicycle or pedestrian connection is unavoidable, an alternative connection will be provided.

North East Link enables the completion of a key missing link in the Strategic Cycling Corridor network: the completion of the Greensborough Road path between Yallambie Road and Grimshaw Street/Greensborough Road Bypass shared use paths. This will enable cycling entirely off-road between the M80 and the wider walking and cycling network via the Eastern Freeway. This path will form part of a continuous ring road trail around Melbourne – over 100km of off-road cycling following the orbital motorway network via Altona, Tullamarine, Greensborough, Ringwood, Dandenong, Carrum and Mt Martha.

Additionally, a shared use path connection starting from Banksia Street (including a new crossing of the Yarra River near Heidelberg) running parallel to Bulleen Road to the Eastern Freeway will provide new connectivity to the schools and sporting fields on Bulleen Road. A new shared use path structure on the eastern side of the Bulleen Road interchange over the Eastern Freeway will enable safer and easier crossing of the freeway, linking the new Bulleen Road path with residential areas south of the freeway. This will be a significant upgrade from the current narrow and sub-standard footpath at the Bulleen Road bridge over the freeway.

In locations where North East Link is planned to be lower than the existing ground level, walking and cycling connections are expected to be provided at the existing surface. There are also opportunities to provide connections via land bridges over the freeway where it is in cutting, improving community integration and accessibility along and across the new link.

Other opportunities to provide connected walking and cycling infrastructure include:

• Completion of the North East Bicycle Corridor – a new walking and cycling link between Merri Creek and Chandler Highway on the north side of the Eastern Freeway to improve access between the eastern suburbs and the inner city
• A new shared use path on the southern side of the M80 and western side of North East Link to improve walking and cycling accessibility to and from Watsonia
• On road cycling routes to improve accessibility to Heidelberg, Watsonia, Greensborough and La Trobe University
• Grade-separated crossings of the Greensborough Road path at Grimshaw Street and Lower Plenty Road
• Grade separation of the Koonung Creek Trail at the Bulleen Road intersection near the Eastern Freeway.

Supporting public transport in the north east

Public transport connections in the north east experience delays due to congestion, particularly at bottlenecks at existing crossings of the Yarra River for services between the northern and eastern suburbs. Bus services that run through the area are inefficient, and growth in residential areas to the north and expansions of commercial and educational precincts in the east and south east will continue to increase demand for these movements.

In addition to implementing Doncaster Busway, North East Link presents opportunities to improve bus services throughout the north east. Further planning will be undertaken to identify how and where these improvements can be made, including:

• Bus priority measures at interchanges with the new motorway
• Performance improvement measures at key intersections to increase the reliability of bus services
• Bus priority measures along key routes and at key intersections
• Interchanges between buses and trains including at Watsonia Station.

North East Link also provides opportunities to build a more efficient and better connected city-wide bus network including providing opportunities for commercially operated bus services to access Melbourne Airport from eastern and south-eastern parts of the state.

Next steps

NELA will work with local councils, VicRoads, PTV, Transport for Victoria, Melbourne Water and other agencies to develop the reference design for the project and identify opportunities to provide additional benefits to the community. An important next step is to for NELA is to work with Melbourne Water and the Wurundjeri Council to ensure development, design and delivery of North East Link respects and protects the Yarra River.

The reference design will be subject to an independent planning and environmental approvals process. This process, which will commence in 2018, will include extensive technical investigations and assessments, and provide multiple opportunities for community comment and input.