Metropolitan Ring Road

The Metropolitan Ring Road is a partially-built ring road around the city of Melbourne, Australia. If fully completed, the ring road would be comprised of three freeways located in Melbourne's western, northern and eastern suburbs, as Melbourne is located on the northern shores of Port Phillip Bay, no freeway to the south would be required.

The project was proposed several decades ago (during the 1960's or 70's) and proposal at the time was documented in almost every edition of the Melway Street Directory since 1966. Under the Kennett government, the Western and Metropolitan Ring Road's were constructed in the late 1990's signalling the begining of construction of the project as a whole.

Much controversy surrounds the metropolitan Ring Road project in Melbourne in many different topics including; environmental, economical, social, private & public transportation and both positive and negative aspects are well represented for each topic by many people and groups small and large. This has led to heavy debate in all areas of society in Melbourne from political and media to general public views and conversations.

The Project

The project is generally divided into 3 sections.

• Western Ring Road
• Northern Ring Road (Currently known as Metropolitan Ring Road)
• Eastern Ring Road (Currently known as EastLink)

Due to political, economical and social reasons, the naming of the project has been complicated.

Western Ring Road

This is the section between the West Gate Freeway and the Hume Freeway. It is signed M80 for its entire length, and is offically a National Highway between the Western Freeway and the Hume Freeway (signified by a National shield for this portion).

It relieves freight traffic from Sydney Road, Pascoe Vale Road and Geelong Road and funnels them to the freeways. With excellent connections to every major interstate and regional freeways, it has encouraged both industrial and residential growth in Melbourne's western suburbs, and allows residents of the eastern and northern suburbs to bypass the city when travelling to the west and south west or to Geelong.

Northern Ring Road

This section is currently named Metropolitan Ring Road although many people don't know that is its current official title, and so, many refer to the section as the northern ring road or simply the ring road. It is located between the Hume Freeway and the Greensborough Highway.

Eastern Ring Road

This section is currently under construction, see EastLink for more information. It is located between the Eastern Freeway and the Frankston Freeway.

Purpose

Its purpose is to:

• integrate the metropolitan area by linking middle and outer suburbs
• assist circumferential travel through the middle suburbs as opportunities for cross town movement are limited
• link the growing populations in the south-east and west suburbs to jobs and economic opportunities throughout the metropolitan area
• provide convenient access to Melbourne Airport, the ports of Melbourne and Geelong, and rail freight terminals, from all parts of Melbourne and from across the State
• provide good access to the whole of the Melbourne metropolitan area to and from country Victoria and interstate.

If completed it will provide a circumferential route around Melbourne starting from Altona and ending in Frankston. The resulting beltway will be similar to the size and scope of Sydney's Orbital Motorway.

It becomes part of the Western Ring Road and is presently signed as the M80.

See List of Melbourne freeways