It’s been a busy autumn in Melbourne’s west, with crews working to remove 4 level crossings in Melton and Truganina and get the new Melton Station ready to welcome passengers later this year.
The construction team has made great progress, with the last of 44 concrete beams for the new rail bridges at Coburns and Exford roads recently delivered to site, and sections of track now being laid in the rail viaducts.
More than 22,000 tonnes of ballast will be used for the Melton rail bridges. Made from crushed stone, ballast helps drain water away from the track and keeps it stable as trains pass over it. Once the ballast is in place, concrete sleepers are installed, followed by the train tracks.
Crews will lay more than 7km of steel rails, delivered to site from Whyalla in South Australia. The tracks will be laid by a hi-rail excavator, with workers then hammering more than 34,000 metal clips into place to connect the rail to 4,581 concrete sleepers.
The new tracks will also features a unique piece of rail infrastructure known as a double compound crossover, allowing multiple tracks to intersect at the same section of rail. This enables trains travelling in either direction to switch onto either track, improving service efficiencies for arrivals and departures at the new Melton Station.
Construction across the station precinct has progressed rapidly over the past month, with workers installing:
- 198 glass panels in the station lifts and staircases
- 530 tonnes of reinforced steel in the station buildings, pedestrian through-link and building slabs
- more than 290 tonnes of structural steel, and
- 775 square metres of roofing and external cladding.
Car parks at Melton Station
To complete landscaping and continue works on the northern forecourt and entrance to the new station, some car parks at the temporary Melton Station will close from Monday 18 May until August.
During this time, a free shuttle bus will operate between 6am and 9am and 3pm and 6pm on weekdays to transport rail passengers from the north west car park on Brooklyn Road to the temporary station. Existing accessible car parking spaces will remain open.
Shuttle bus services will coordinate with train timetables, with customer service staff on site to assist passengers.
Alternative all-day parking is available at Caroline Springs Station and Bacchus Marsh Station. Parking availability may vary, so passengers are advised to plan ahead and allow extra time for their journey.
The new Melton Station will open later this year and feature 4 platforms with undercover areas to provide shelter from the weather, an air-conditioned waiting room, and 2 extended platforms so passengers can benefit from longer, 9-car VLocity trains running on the Melton Line next year.
Four dangerous and congested level crossings are also being removed this year from the Melton Line at Coburns Road, Exford Road and Ferris Road in Melton, and at Hopkins Road in Truganina.