Overview

We’re planning for an upgrade of the Western Freeway between Melton and Caroline Springs to improve safety, freeway access and road capacity to help accommodate growing demand.

The Western Freeway is a critical road link and every single day approximately 86,000 vehicles travel the stretch between Melton and Caroline Springs, with this figure expected to rise to approximately 113,000 by 2031.

Options explored to upgrade the Western Freeway between Harkness Road and Christies Road include:

• additional road lanes
• new interchanges and overpasses
• upgrades to existing interchanges
• upgrades to walking and cycling paths
• traffic signal and street lighting improvements
• public transport facilities.

Planning and development

In early 2023, planning and development work commenced to inform the Western Freeway Upgrade.

Planning work completed to date includes preliminary traffic modelling, community engagement, land and soil investigations, environmental investigations and economic assessments. This has helped us to understand the local area, possible environmental and social impacts and evaluate different options.

Planning has considered the Precinct Structure Plans developed for the area as well as residential estate developments currently in planning or construction in the local area. This helped us understand the projected growth of the area and the demand this will place on the freeway.

A business case has been completed, which provides a detailed examination of the freeway upgrade to inform government-decision making.

This project is currently in the planning phase and there is no funding for construction at this stage.

Community feedback

From 11 November to 10 December 2023, we asked for feedback from the community via Engage Victoria to help inform our planning for the upgrade.

Your feedback provided local insights that has helped us to understand community views on safety, traffic flow and what we should consider in our planning.

Feedback highlighted strong support for additional road lanes, upgrades to some existing interchanges, suggested locations for several new interchanges and to provide better active transport connections to make it easier and safer to walk and cycle in the area.

99% of respondents are supportive of a potential upgrade to the Western Freeway between Melton and Caroline Springs.

For further information on what you’ve said view the Community Consultation Summary Report (PDF, 1.0 MB).

Next steps

Detailed planning work is progressing. Key activities include:

• refining designs
• detailed traffic analysis and modelling, to further understand the future growth of the area and the demand this will place on the freeway
• on-site investigations to further test ground conditions
• detailed flood modelling to understand project design impacts to the current flow of water
• further environmental investigations to better understand flora, fauna and tree species
• investigations to map utility services
• determining how the upgrade could be staged for construction.

Timeline