Eastern Freeway

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Eastern Freeway
Formerly Reports of new M3 signage can be found on this link as of Feb 2008
Length	18 km
General direction	West-East
From	Alexandra Parade, Collingwood, Melbourne
Major suburbs	Bulleen, Doncaster, Box Hill North
To	EastLink, Donvale, Melbourne
Established	1970s
Allocation	M3
Major Junctions	Hoddle Street Chandler Highway Burke Road Bulleen Road Thompsons Road Doncaster Road Elgar Road Tram Road Middleborough Road Blackburn Road Springvale Road

The Eastern Freeway is one of Melbourne's most important freeways in terms of commuting to the city, connecting Alexandra Parade and Hoddle St in the inner suburbs, with Springvale Road in Melbourne's east. It is three to five lanes in each direction, including an inbound "transit lane" reserved for vehicles with two or more occupants during peak hour.

Contents 1 History 2 Route 3 Extension Plans 4 Speed enforcement 5 Interchanges 5.1 Exits and Intersections 5.2 Freeway Plan 6 See also 7 References

[edit] History

Originally designated F-19 during its construction in the early 1970s, it was supposed to be linked to the then-new Tullamarine Freeway, as well as taking traffic off the Maroondah Highway. Protests from inner Melbourne suburbs residents led it be terminated at Hoddle St. Stage 1 finshed at Bulleen Road, it opened during December 1977. Stage 2 to Doncaster Road opened on 3 June 1982, and stage 3 in December 1997 to Springvale Road, Nunawading. Its eventual designation was . In 2008 it will connect with the new EastLink arterial, a toll road which will go to Ringwood and join the Monash and Frankston Freeways.

The Eastern Freeway was designed to enable the heavy-rail Doncaster line to be built down the middle of it to Bulleen Road, with support pylons for bridges kept out of the extra wide median strip. Land was reserved to build the railway line to East Doncaster, but the plan fell out of favour in the 1980s and the land was sold.^[1] In recent years, amidst growing congestion problems in Melbourne, the idea has been revived and public pressure has been mounting for the project to be restarted.^[2]

As of March 2008, the route shield for the Eastern Freeway is progressively changing to with all coverplates being removed at present.^[3]

[edit] Route

The Eastern Freeway starts at its junction with Hoddle Street, as an eastern continuation of Alexandra Parade (referred to in Vicroads documents as the Eastern Highway), with five lanes eastbound and two lanes westbound. Three more lanes (that provide an exit to Hoddle Street) join the freeway after it leaves the junction. The freeway narrows to four lanes in each direction near Chandler Highway and Yarra Bend.

The freeway narrows to three lanes just before Bulleen Road, and features a concrete barrier rather than the grassy median that was designed to carry a railway (and may do so in the near or far future). There is a short four lane section between Tram and Blackburn Roads, then three lanes to the end at Springvale Road. The freeway is unique in that it does not connect to any other freeway (EastLink will end this), despite its heavy traffic, which is mainly cars driven by commuters to work.

[edit] Extension Plans

There has been widespread interest in building a tunnel linking Hoddle St to CityLink and the Western Ring road. The Eastern Freeway does not connect to any freeways in the city and traffic from the Eastern is released along Alexandra Pde or at Hoddle St. Particularly of concern, there will be a major traffic bottleneck at the Western end of the Eastern Freeway once the EastLink opens, as well as when the (future plans of opening the) Healesville and Metropolitan Ring Road extension to The Eastern Freeway occurs. The idea has been mooted since the Kennett Government raised the idea; however, the Kennett Government lost the 1999 election to Steve Bracks' Labor Party, and the Labor Government showed little sign of interest building the link. On 1st March 2007, the Labor Government announced a study linking the major feeways which will be headed by former British Airways Chief and International Transport Expert Sir Rod Eddington.

[edit] Speed enforcement

The entire freeway has an 100 km/h speed limit. Victoria Police regularly patrol the full length of the freeway, strictly enforcing its speed limit. They mainly park in the centre median in the western section of the freeway, west of the Bulleen Road interchange, and east of Bulleen Road, police cars may be found in the emergency lane.

[edit] Interchanges

[edit] Exits and Intersections

Eastern Freeway
Westbound exits	Distance from Alexandra Parade (km)	Distance from EastLink (km)	Eastbound exits
End Eastern Freeway continues as Alexandra Parade to Parkville	0	18	Start Eastern Freeway from Alexandra Parade
Collingwood Hoddle Street			Collingwood Hoddle Street
EPPING / HURSTBRIDGE RAIL LINE			EPPING / HURSTBRIDGE RAIL LINE
Kew Chandler Highway	3	15	Kew Chandler Highway
no exit	--	12	Kew East Burke Road
Balwyn North Bulleen Road	8	10	Balwyn North Bulleen Road
Balwyn North Thompsons Road			Balwyn North Thompsons Road
Balwyn North Doncaster Road	10	8	Balwyn North Doncaster Road
no exit	--	6	Doncaster Elgar Road
Box Hill North Station Street / Tram Road	13	--	no exit
Blackburn North Wetherby Road / Middleborough Road	14	4	Blackburn North Wetherby Road / Middleborough Road
no exit	--	2	Blackburn North Blackburn Road / Surrey Road
Donvale Springvale Road	18	0	Donvale Springvale Road
Start Eastern Freeway continues from EastLink			End Eastern Freeway continues as EastLink to Frankston

[edit] Freeway Plan

To have a closer look at the plan, please click the image

[edit] See also

• Road transport in Victoria

[edit] References