CityLinkTulla Widening Project
Bulla Road to Power Street - Construction update December 2015
Works begin on major upgrade
Work on the CityLinkTulla Widening project has begun between Bulla Road and Power Street. The project aims to relieve congestion and improve safety on this vital route for Victorians, interstate and overseas visitors.
The 24 kilometre long project will add extra lanes in each direction between Power Street and Melbourne Airport, which will increase capacity, ease congestion and improve travel times on the freeway. We will also upgrade key interchanges and install a new freeway management system.
Works began early in October 2015 with the installation of safety barriers along the freeway to create safe work areas for our crew.
Much of the construction work will be undertaken behind the barriers from now until 2018. Generally construction hours will be Monday to Saturday 7am – 6pm with some night works. Residents will be notified of upcoming night works if work is taking place near residential properties.
We have also been changing line marking, trimming and clearing vegetation along the road corridor and reducing the speed limit on the freeway.
In the lead-up to Christmas you will notice construction beginning between Bell Street and Moreland Road. Work in the area includes investigation of utility services, relocation/protection and installation of temporary services, upgrading drainage services, site investigation works, widening of road pavement and bridges, modifying existing noise walls and installing new noise walls in some locations.
Over the coming months you can expect:
·Changed traffic conditions on CityLink and local roads
·Partial lane closures to allow for safe work areas
·Temporary closures of paths and the Moonee Ponds Creek trail (detours in place)
·Minor changes to the Moonee Ponds Creek trail under the Pascoe Vale Road outbound exit ramp to enable construction works for a new bridge connecting Pascoe Vale Road and Bell Street
·Some construction vehicles using local roads to access our work sites where we cannot safely access from within the corridor
·Some use of local on-street car parking by additional workers during peak construction periods.
Keeping traffic moving
Drivers travelling to and from Melbourne Airport will have noticed the changes in traffic conditions on the freeway leading to the airport from Flemington Road to Bulla Road.
The changed conditions include the installation of concrete barriers to provide safe work zones for the construction crews, a change in line marking on the road, reduced lane widths and speed limits changed to 80kmph to provide a safe environment for the construction teams and motorists.
You will notice areas where the existing line marking has been removed to make way for the new lanes. Industry best practice techniques of water blasting have been used to remove the existing line marking. Water blasting is regularly used by road authorities across Australia.
The current traffic arrangement is temporary with traffic required to be shifted several times throughout the project. These traffic arrangements are designed to cause the least impact possible and to keep traffic moving along and around one of Melbourne’s busiest freeways.
There will be other changed conditions and traffic impacts along the corridor during the next two years and this will include full carriageway closures with signed detour routes.
Improvements to Bell Street Interchange
One of the key features of work on the Bulla Road to Power Street section of the CityLinkTulla Widening project is happening at Bell Street with the addition of a new bridge to Pascoe Vale Road from Bell Street, leaving the existing bridge for traffic accessing CityLink.
The current traffic movement between Bell Street and Pascoe Vale Road is well recognised as a difficult intersection, with 30 accidents reported there since 2000.
The works at the intersection include:
·A new bridge connecting Bell Street to Pascoe Vale Road built for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians
·The existing bridge will be dedicated to freeway-bound traffic, the ramp will be widened and lengthened and traffic signals will improve traffic flow onto the freeway, reducing queuing on Bell Street
·Some vegetation will need to be removed during construction, and a landscaping plan will guide reinstatement of vegetation following completion of works
Work at the intersection began in late October and will be completed in 2018.
Most major construction in the area will occur in 2016, including the construction of the Bell Street bridge, which will take around 18 months.
We will keep residents informed of major works ahead of time, particularly when working outside normal construction hours of 7am to 6pm Monday to Saturday. Night and weekend works are sometimes necessary to keep workers safe and minimise traffic disruption.
We will provide advance notice of any major disruption and clearly sign and communicate detours.
Cyclists and pedestrians may also notice changed conditions or detours of shared use paths or footpaths, including along the Moonee Ponds Creek trail. We will always provide a safe and clearly signed detour.
Setting up work sites in your area
A number of site compounds have been established across the corridor as part of the construction works for the CityLinkTulla Widening project.
To date we have established or are in the process of establishing site compounds at Pascoe Vale Road, Strathmore, next to CityLink, Dynon Road, West Melbourne, under CityLink and Meaden Street, South Melbourne, under the Westgate Freeway.
In general the site compounds will provide meal rooms, toilets and parking for workers as well as being used as laydown areas for the storage of materials to be used in construction such as pipes, steel and gravel.
Workers will meet at the site compound at the beginning of their shifts to be briefed on their days work and then transported to their work sites by bus. Throughout their shifts they will be transported back to the compound for meal breaks and at the end of their shifts.
A small work crew of will be based at the site compound. During peak construction periods we may require additional workers who may need to use on-street parking in local streets near the site facilities. If this occurs we will advise residents that some vehicles may be parked in local streets but only where there is sufficient capacity.
The construction team will sometimes need to access the site compound outside of normal construction hours, when night works or Sunday works are required to ensure public and worker safety. The laydown area may be accessed by construction vehicles at any time of the day or night for transporting materials to and from our work sites or for receiving supplies.
If nearby, you will be notified if there are any activities at the site facilities that may affect you.
All site compounds are patrolled by security and where any of these activities may have an impact on nearby residents, Leighton Contractors will contact residents by letterbox drop.
Path detours
There will be temporary closures and detours along the Moonee Ponds Creek trail during construction on the Bulla Road to Power Street section of the CityLinkTulla Widening project.
Notifications of any detours will be delivered by letterbox to local residents and posted on citylinktullawidening.vic.gov.au and Twitter using #CTWidening.
Keeping the community informed
The construction team for the Bulla Road to Power Street section of the CityLinkTulla Widening project is committed to keeping stakeholders informed about upcoming construction activities through effective and timely communications.
The community relations team will ensure that motorists and residents receive advance notification of works that are likely to cause disruption or inconvenience, and that stakeholder feedback is taken into consideration during planning of construction activities.
Residents and business owners in some areas along the project boundary will already have met and spoken to our community relations advisors during door-knocks, at community events and at meetings.
Within the project team, the community relations team works closely with the construction and traffic management teams to identify potentially disruptive work and to schedule that work in a way that minimises impacts to the local community.
Sometimes, due to the complex nature of the project, some construction activities will need to be carried out at night and on weekends to minimise disruption to traffic on CityLink.
We will notify you when we are planning disruptive activities outside our normal working hours. If the works are likely to be noisy during the nights we will doorknock residents and explain the nature of the works, the time they will be done and the level of impact.
For other works which may not have as high an impact, we will provide regular updates through letterbox drops, this newsletter, which will be distributed quarterly and notifications via the project website.
If you wish to contact a member of the Leighton Contractors Community Relations Team for any further information please refer to the contact details below.
Contact Details
For further information please call 1300 783 947, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Or email
Or visit
Or following #CTWidening on Twitter.
If you require information about the CityLinkTulla Widening project in another language, please call us on 131 450 to speak to an interpreter.