Overview
An 8km section of the Tullamarine Freeway between Bulla Road and Melbourne Airport was upgraded.
For Stage 2 of the upgrade, we:
- added an extra lane in each direction
- upgraded the Mickleham Road interchange
- built a new separated road and earlier exit to the M80 Ring Road
- rebuilt the English Street Bridge
- built a new separated road and earlier exit to English Street and Matthews Avenue
- installed new ramp signals to control the flow of traffic entering from the Calder Freeway
- built a bus bridge to give priority to buses exiting the airport and travelling towards the city
- installed new ramp signals to control the flow of traffic entering the Tulla Freeway.
Upgrades to Mickleham Road interchange
As part of the upgrade, we:
- added a new, dedicated lane between Mickleham Road and the M80 Ring Road
- added a new lane from the Tullamarine Freeway to the M80 before the Mickleham Road entry
- added an extra lane on the Mickleham Road entry to the Tullamarine Freeway
- raised the Tullamarine Freeway link to the M80 to cross over Mickleham Road
- installed new ramp signals on the Mickleham Road entry.
English Street and Matthews Avenue
A new dedicated exit for northbound traffic to access Essendon Fields and Airport West via English Street was built. The new exit begins at Bulla Road, 2.3km earlier than the original exit.
English Street bridge
The English Street Bridge was rebuilt to cater for the widened Tullamarine Freeway and to improve access to Essendon Fields.
The bridge was also widened and extra right-hand turn lanes added for travel to the city and Melbourne Airport. We replaced the 2 pedestrian bridges at Vaughan and Earl Streets, to widen the freeway underneath.
Calder Freeway ramp signals
A large number of people take trips from the Calder Freeway to the Tullamarine Freeway every day. Ramp signals manage traffic flow both on the freeways and at their merge-points.
Ramp signals were installed, and in some cases ramps were widened on the Calder Freeway. The 7 ramps upgraded were:
- Kings Road
- Melton Highway
- Green Gully Road
- Keilor Park Drive
- M80 Ring Road
- Moorna Drive
- McNamara Avenue.
These signals were switched on in June 2018.