Transporting large materials to site

The West Gate Tunnel Project will provide an alternative to the West Gate Bridge and take more than 9,000 trucks a day out of the inner west by providing a more direct route to the port.

To build a project of this size, large pieces of concrete that will form the new bridges, elevated roads and noise walls, need to be trucked from Benalla in north east Victoria to our construction sites in the inner west.

While most of them will be able to be moved like a normal truck load, some loads are of a size that for safety reasons need to travel much slower and, with the approval from the relevant authorities, use council roads and travel overnight.

A large amount of planning goes into how these pieces are best moved in order to reduce the disruption to motorists and nearby local communities. This includes minimising as much as possible the number of loads that detour off main roads, travelling at low speed, having pilot vehicles guide the trucks and informing communities of what to expect.

What route will the trucks take through Melbourne’s inner west?

The West Gate Tunnel Project uses approved truck routes to safely transport construction equipment and materials to and from our worksites with minimal impact to residents, motorists and the broader traffic network.

Most of these will be transported using one of a number of approved truck routes (see map below).

Trucks will leave Benalla and make their way down the Hume Highway and access the metropolitan area at the M80. The vast majority of these loads will travel at night on CityLink.

Some loads need to be escorted by pilot vehicles and depending on their size and weight may travel at lower than sign posted speeds.

For the transportation of these loads, the route must be approved by the Department of Transport and meet the necessary requirements of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulators,which includes being granted a permit to travel. The permit provided from the National Heavy Vehicle Regulators provides exemptions to travel on roads outside of curfew hours if they must travel at night.

What should I expect?

While most of the loads will travel on CityLink, some of the bigger loads will travel at night and at much lower speeds and will need to use Francis Street and Somerville Road.

These roads will only be used where there is no other alternative due to the size and weight of the loads.

Oversized loads will be permitted to travel along these truck routes during curfew hours in order to facilitate deliveries to our worksites.

Safety will be a priority for these oversized loads, with trucks travelling on average 40km/h, but as low as 5 km/h.

The trucks will only use air brakes in residential areas and will fall well under the Australian noise standards for large trucks.

There won’t be any significant light spill from the support vehicles.

If you're travelling behind one of these bigger loads and want to overtake, please do so safely and with care.

How will I be kept informed?

The deliveries of concrete segments for the project will continue over a 24 month period.

For up to date information about deliveries coming to site visit ourBenalla Deliveries webpage, or our social media channels.

You can also contact us on 1800 105 105.

We’ll keep residents up to date with our activities and be available to answer any queries or concerns throughout the delivery program.

We thank you for your patience as we build Melbourne’s alternative to the West Gate Bridge.