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Wednesday May 23, 2012

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Fifth lane on West Gate opens

Posted by: Nino Bucci, The Age | 22 June, 2011 - 4:30 PM
West Gate bridge

Commuters returning to the western suburbs from Wednesday night can look forward to an extra lane being open on the West Gate Bridge.

Victorian Roads Minister Terry Mulder said today that a fifth lane would be opened in each direction during peak times.

“The opening of the fifth lane on the West Gate Bridge is good news for Melbourne. It will not only mean an end to peak lane closures, but it will also help tackle the city's traffic congestion and deliver more reliable journeys between the CBD and the Western suburbs,” Mr Mulder said.

More than 130,000 motorists and 24,000 truck drivers use the bridge each day, Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said.

He said 20 months of extensive strengthening work had been done to ensure the bridge could support the extra lanes.

While five lanes are now open in each direction at peak times, works will continue on the West Gate Bridge until the end of the year and this will require continuing off-peak lane closures.

A report released at the beginning of this month revealed that Melbourne's freeways had slowed markedly this year - mainly due to roadworks.

According to VicRoads' annual Traffic Monitor report, morning peak hours fell from 56km/h to 43km/h while average afternoon rush hour speeds fell from 73km/h the previous year to 63km/h.

At the same time the number of trucks on freeways increased by 9 per cent, according to the report.

Over the past three years, the state government has spent $1.4 billion on widening and strengthening the Monash, West Gate and CityLink freeways (collectively known as the M1).

Originally costed at $240 million, the price of adding the lane to the West Gate Bridge blew out by $60 million.

VicRoads' director for the West Gate project, Kevin Devlin, said in April that the additional costs had come up because of ''unforeseeable difficulties with the existing conditions''.

Mulder defends plans for trams

Terry Mulder Transport Minister Terry Mulder has gone on the front foot to defend the plan to take ticket vending machines out of trams. The move is the biggest change announced by the government as part of its decision to back Myki. Click the image on the right for more.

Blog comments Your Say

  • This decision on the West Gate Bridge merely increases its transport capacity by 25% - yet Victoria's population was predicted by the previous Labor Government to increase by 100% (i.e. double) by 2030! Australia should be urgently investing in renewable energy-driven public transport and not in highways for greenhouse gas (GHG)-spewing trucks and private vehicles. It is too late anyway - the Climate Commission's recent report "The Critical Decade" implicitly says that Australia's "fair share" of science-demanded global GHG pollution reduction means that it must get to zero Domestic and Exported GHG pollution within 2 years ( pigs may fly)!

    Dr Gideon Polya Thursday 23 June, 2011 - 9:57 AM

  • Let's hope they finish work on the ring road soon. Between the Tulla and the Hume has been 80 kph for the last 10 years. Finish it already!!!

    Mylene Thursday 23 June, 2011 - 9:46 AM

  • The West Gate project is only for the trucks on our roads

    col Wednesday 22 June, 2011 - 7:17 PM

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