Overview

Bringing our road, bus and bike network together

Artist’s impression aerial view looking south of Borlase Reserve parklands with new playground, bridge over Lower Plenty Road to Banyule Flats and Greensborough Road boulevard, Yallambie.

Fixing the missing link in Melbourne’s freeway network has been talked about for decades.

But North East Link will deliver much more, including the big road, bus and walking and cycling upgrades needed to keep Melbourne’s north-east moving in the decades to come.

With half a million Victorians living within 2km of a planned interchange, this massive program of work will bring our road, bus and bike network together and change the way people move around Melbourne.

Victoria’s longest road tunnels will fix the missing link in our city’s freeway network, take 15,000 trucks off local roads a day and reduce travel times by up to 35 minutes.

We’ll also complete the Ring Road in Greensborough, overhaul the Eastern Freeway, build Melbourne’s first dedicated busway and the North East Trail – more than 34km of walking and cycling paths.

Key benefits of North East Link

North East Link Tunnels

6.5km tunnels with parklands, wetlands and a new-look Greensborough Road boulevard above
3 interchanges at Lower Plenty Road, Manningham Road and the Eastern Freeway

Ring Road Completion

5 new lanes with smart technology
2 green bridges at Elder Street and Watsonia Road
new multi-level car parking at Watsonia Station

Eastern Freeway Upgrades

11 minutes reduced between Springvale Road and Hoddle Street
45km+ of new and upgraded lanes where they’re needed most
6 express lanes for faster, smoother trips between Middleborough Road and Chandler Highway

Eastern Express Busway

11km dedicated bus lanes from Doncaster to the city
100km/h travel speeds
a bus on average every minute during the peak
new Bulleen Park & Ride and upgraded Doncaster Park & Ride

North East Trail

34km+ of new and upgraded walking and cycling paths in 16 suburbs
40 new and upgraded bridges crossings
8 main trails linked to create 100km of continuous trail around Melbourne

Growing industry and the economy

creating more than 10,000 jobs

View a printable version of the North East Link project overview map (PDF, 2.4 MB)

Getting builders on board

To deliver this massive program of work, we will progressively appoint teams of builders for each big element. The North East Link Tunnels will take the longest to build, so we’re starting with these first. In June 2021, the Spark consortium was appointed as our partner to take on the next stage of more detailed design and manage construction.

In October 2022, two world-class consortia were selected as the preferred bidders for the next big elements of the North East Link Program – the overhaul of the Eastern Freeway and the completion of the M80 Ring Road. We’ll now work with both bidders ahead of contracts being awarded by mid next year, and we will go out to market to seek Expressions of Interest to overhaul other sections of the Eastern Freeway – with the program delivering upgrades from Hoddle Street to Springvale Road.

We’re also going out to market for other elements of North East Link, including the Eastern Express Busway and surrounding sections of the North East Trail.

The timing for detailed design and construction will be carefully staged, so the whole project is completed in 2028, bringing all the pieces of North East Link together.