Swan Street Bridge will be widened and new “wings” built on either side for pedestrians and cyclists

THE Swan Street Bridge will be widened and new “wings” built on either side for pedestrians and cyclists, unlocking a ­notorious Melbourne chokepoint.

VicRoads artist impression of the Swan Street Bridge upgrade.

THE Swan Street Bridge will be widened and new “wings” built on either side for pedestrians and cyclists, unlocking a ­notorious Melbourne chokepoint.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal as part of the $30 million traffic fix, a section of Olympic Ave, running along the city’s sports and entertainment precinct, will also be expanded all the way through to Punt Rd. A new pedestrian crossing on the Alexandra ­Ave side of the bridge will also be constructed, catering for the 1300 people that cross the bridge hourly during major sporting and concert events.

The long-awaited redesign making the bridge into five lanes will cut about five minutes off sitting idle in traffic and end the frustrating queue jumping along the bridge.

Works on the Yarra River bridge crossing will start early next year.

About 30,000 motorists cross the Swan Street Bridge daily, while up to 1000 cyclists use the bike trails underneath the bridge hourly.

Currently, those exiting the city are crunched in traffic snarls stretching for kilo­metres to City Rd as the eastbound drivers only have access to one of the two lanes.

The less congested second lane on the bridge is reserved as a priority lane for CityLink traffic turning right at the intersection.

Queue jumping is notorious on the bridge with motorists blocking the CityLink-bound traffic as they try to squeeze in front of cars to avoid being stuck in the wrong lane.

Under the congestion-busting revamp, the current roadspace will be used to remove footpaths on both sides to make room for a new eastbound lane.

This allows for two dedicated lanes for those heading straight into Olympic Blvd or turning left into Batman Ave.

The third lane will remain a CityLink-only lane.

Footpath wings will be clipped on to both sides of the popular bridge for pedestrians and cyclists keeping them separated from traffic.

To prevent a new bottleneck occurring on Olympic Blvd, a section of footpath and taxi ranks will be removed from the Rod Laver side and turned into a second lane, linking up with the dual lanes at Hisense Arena.

Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said the upgrade would improve safety and cut congestion.

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