Viewing area: Union Road
We’ve removed the dangerous and congested level crossings at Union Road, Surrey Hills and Mont Albert Road, Mont Albert by lowering the rail line beneath the roads in an open trench and built a brand-new Union station with better facilities and more services.
What's happening here
Facing out from the Union Road viewing area, visitors can see the new Union Road bridge and open space starting to take shape over the rail trench.
The team installed 16 precast concrete beams that form the support for the bridge, along with 82 tonnes of reinforcing steel and 400 cubic metres of concrete.
Once complete, the Union Road open space will feature a community square with tiered seating, a civic plaza with a climbable sculpture, terraced gardens, café-style seating, and a bus waiting area.
The area will include additional amenities, with a drinking fountain, a hammock net, and a combined toilet facility consisting of an accessible public toilet and Changing Places toilet, ensuring all shoppers and visitors to Union Road can access suitable facilities.
In total throughout the Big Dig, we excavated more than 210,000 cubic metres of material and poured 14,800 cubic metres of the concrete to form the base of the rail trench.
We also installed 472 micro piles into the concrete base slab, which helps to reinforce the trench, holding it down and making it watertight for trains travelling on it.
During April and May, we installed the rail infrastructure including the ballast, track, overhead structures for the power supply and signalling systems (silver structures on top of the trench retaining walls).
Finishing works on Union Station and the surrounding precinct will continue over the coming months.
Next steps
Union Road is now open to traffic, with ongoing traffic management in place, the brand-new Union Station now open, with trains running through the 1.3km rail trench beneath Union and Mont Albert roads.
Work will continue into spring 2023 on the car parks, landscaping, and new open spaces on Union Road, Montrose Street, the Mont Albert drop-off area, rejuvenated Lorne Parade Reserve and Mont Albert heritage plaza.
We will also plant more than 52,000 trees, shrubs and plants in the local area.
Thank you for your patience
We want to thank the community and traders for your patience during these works.
We understand that our works are disruptive and we remain available to discuss your needs as we move into our next phase of construction, which includes landscaping and reinstatement works.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Interactive works and detours map
You can now keep up to date with the works and detours around site.
Keeping in touch
To keep up to date on the works being carried out, simply:
- Register for SMS by texting the word UMA to 0459 067 028
- Sign up to our email updates
- Visit our website and social media channels for both level crossing removals.
To speak to a member of the project team, you can call us on 1800 105 105 or email contact@levelcrossings.vic.gov.au