Ballarat Road, Melbourne

Infobox Australian Road
road_name = Ballarat Road
route_

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route_

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route_

photo =
caption = Proposed
length = 15
direction = West-East
start =
finish =
est =
through = Caroline Springs, Burnside, Deer Park, Cairnlea, Albion, Sunshine, Braybrook, Maidstone
route = "Ravenhall-Western Ring Road:"
exits = Caroline Springs Boulevard
Westwood Drive
Gordon Street

Ballarat Road .

History

The road has historically been signed as as part of the F12 Freeway corridor.

Geography

Ballarat Road starts at the Footscray junction of Geelong Road in Footscray and continues west through Maidstone, Braybrook, Sunshine, Albion, Cairnlea, Deer Park, Burnside, and the new Caroline Springs estate. The major junctions along the route include the Western Ring Road and the future Deer Park Bypass.

Transport

Tram route 82 runs along the Footscray section of Ballarat Road, between Gordon & Droop Streets. The Melton railway line from Southern Cross runs parallel to Ballarat Road from Sunshine about 1km to the south, with stations at Albion, and Deer Park. Several bus routes run along Ballarat Road at various points (routes 215, 216, 220, 223, 256, 400, 406, 408, 410 and 456) with 456 continuing on the Western Freeway to Melton.

With three lanes running in each direction, between Deer Park (as National M8) and the Western Ring Road, this is currently one of the worst bottlenecks in western Melbourne with traffic reaching 70,000 vehicles per day, with 10 per cent of this consisting of heavy vehicles. This causes delays, in part due to seven traffic signals between the Western Ring Road and the start of the Western Freeway. With the completion of the Deer Park Bypass traffic volumes are predicted to decrease to local traffic standard by the end of 2009.

Beyond that, to central Melbourne, losing its dual carriageway status at Braybrook and becoming another clogged two lane arterial road, including one small stretch, which shares the road with trams.

See also

*Deer Park Bypass
*Western Highway
*Western Freeway

References