The summer construction program wrapped up at the end of February for the West Gate Tunnel Project, with 70 percent of construction activities now complete on the West Gate Freeway.
Thanks to drivers remaining patient throughout the disruptive campaign, crews were able to power through the works, which brings the project one step closer to widening the freeway from eight to 12 through lanes. This will reduce travel times from the inner-west to the CBD.
The six-week campaign saw crews rebuild and realign a number of existing on and off ramps at the M80 interchange, as well as construct parts of a new outbound ramp that will take motorists driving from the city from the West Gate Freeway to the Princes Freeway.
At Williamstown Road, crews were able to rebuild sections of the exit ramp to Williamstown Road and the on ramp to the West Gate Bridge, as well as strengthen the bridge over Williamstown Road to make it stronger for decades to come.
While the summer construction campaign has finished, crews are continuing to build new freeway lanes and upgrading existing lanes. As such, there will be changed traffic conditions on the citybound section of the freeway from the end of February until the end of 2023.
The project is splitting the lanes on the city-bound freeway between the Muir Street pedestrian bridge and Williamstown Road interchange, which will require drivers to decide to exit at Williamstown Road, before the Muir Street pedestrian bridge.
Drivers will need to reduce their speed to 60 km/h as the four city-bound lanes are split into two sets of two lanes before joining up right before the West Gate Bridge. All lanes will continue to take drivers to the West Gate Bridge. While changed traffic conditions can be frustrating for drivers, reducing the speed limit is for the safety of all road users, as well as for our workers.
Road signs and road markings will be displayed as drivers make their way towards the West Gate Bridge, but we are reminding drivers to remain calm, follow the speed limits in place and avoid changing lanes.
These traffic changes will allow crews to move more traffic safely on the citybound carriageway and use the newly built citybound ramp over the Williamstown Road interchange while work ramps up around the citybound tunnel portal.
As work progresses on widening the West Gate Freeway to reduce congestion and improve travel times, there will be further lane and ramp closure.
We ask road users to plan their journeys accordingly by checking the latest travel advice on the Big Build website – bigbuild.vic.gov.au and when using the freeway, look out for digital road signs and follow the detour routes in place.
