Major Melbourne road closures, network maintenance to cause travel headaches

SUMMER shutdowns will cause major headaches for Melburnians these holidays. Find out where the major closures will be.

SHUTDOWNS will cause major headaches for Melburnians over the summer as authorities use the Christmas-New Year holiday period to pick up the pace of upgrades to the road system and the train and tram networks.

Hoddle St, which is typically used by 130,000 motorists a day, will close to traffic between the Eastern Fwy and Victoria Pde for eight days in early January, as work begins on fixing the city’s worst bottleneck.

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Shutdowns will cause headaches for Melburnians over summer. Picture: Ian Currie

Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said drivers should plan their travel and if possible reconsider their route to and from the city.

“We’ll have more than 100 workers day and night to get this work done during the school holidays and before the Australian Open,” he said.

Mr Donnellan said this approach would avoid what would otherwise have been five months of rolling closures for Hoddle St.

Other maintenance projects on some of Melbourne’s busiest train and tram routes and roads will bring further pain for commuters.

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Three citybound lanes of the West Gate Bridge are to close between Christmas and December 30. VicRoads is ­advising motorists to plan for delays of up to an hour.

The continuation of work widening the Tullamarine Fwy will result in overnight road closures.

And upgrades to the ­Monash Fwy to prepare for the West Gate Tunnel project will also lead to lane closures.

Public transport commuters have been warned to expect major delays as track and signalling upgrades are rolled out across the network.

Buses will replace trains on long stretches of the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines from January 2-17, which will also affect V/Line and Frankston services.

Commuters have been warned to expect delays of up to 75 minutes.

And for the first two weeks of the year, buses will replace trams along Lygon St, as new tracks are rolled out between Elgin and Weston streets.

The building projects have been timed to coincide with the quietest period on the public transport network.

Passenger numbers are forecast to drop by about 40 per cent.

Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said: “Over the quieter summer period, crews will be working hard to prepare the network for bigger, better trains and to remove nine dangerous level-crossings on Melbourne’s busiest rail ­corridor.

“We encourage Victorians to plan, allow for extra travel time, and visit the VicRoads or Public Transport Victoria websites to access the best information,” Ms Allan said.

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