The West Gate Tunnel Project has completed a huge amount of construction over the past few months, including widening works around the Millers Road interchange as part of a spring construction blitz, as well as switching traffic onto brand new pavement along the West Gate Freeway.
All this work goes towards adding two extra lanes in each direction on the West Gate Freeway, and extra lanes on Millers Road under the freeway to reduce congestion and make it easier for people to get around.
Upon completion of the spring construction works on Monday 5 October, the Millers Road inbound ramps to and from the West Gate Freeway have been shifted and rebuilt to align with the new widened setup.
As part of this huge amount of work, crews worked to build four layers of pavement on each of the inbound ramps (that’s 4,700 tonnes!), install 332 metres of stormwater drainage and 835 metres of permanent curb.
At the Millers Road centre median under the West Gate Freeway, crews have removed existing kerb and light pole footings, placed 50 tonnes of pavement material, installed six metres of stormwater drainage, 183 metres of permanent kerb and permanent traffic light foundations.
To make the most of the quieter roads, the spring construction campaign was moved forward to take place in late August. Bringing the program forward and adjusting the works schedule meant more work could be done during the day, reducing night works and impacts to the community including allowing noisy works to be done during the day instead of at night.
Other recent freeway widening milestones include the completion of the stage two traffic switch. This work involved shifting traffic lanes to either sides of the freeway, so new worksites could be setup in the centre median to continue building the new lanes.
Because traffic was being shifted onto a brand-new road alignment and new pavement was being constructed, ongoing nightly closures of the West Gate Freeway overnight were required.
The West Gate Tunnel Project thanks the community for their ongoing patience as we build the West Gate Tunnel Project and widen the West Gate Freeway to provide an alternative to the West Gate Bridge and take trucks off local roads.
Currently, the freeway has four lanes running in each direction, and once the project is complete there will be six through lanes in each direction.
There will be further other unavoidable disruptions and necessary road closures, so make sure you check bigbuild.vic.gov.au/disruptions for all the latest traffic impacts.
For more information on freeway widening works visit https://westgatetunnelproject.vic.gov.au/construction/west-gate-freeway
