Construction works aiming to fix two Victorian bottlenecks and upgrade the M80 Ring Road between Sunshine Avenue and the Calder Freeway have begun.
Senator for Victoria, James Paterson, said the $300 million Australian and Victorian government-funded 3.2km upgrade would greatly improve traffic flow and travel times.
“The works we’re undertaking will benefit more than 165,000 drivers, including more than 22,000 truck drivers, as we unlock capacity on the road,” Mr Paterson said.
“We’re also using a new electronic lane use management system and CCTV cameras to ensure incidents are cleared quickly and efficiently.
“The upgrade will lead to the creation of more than 1,300 jobs and will help drive economic growth in Victoria.”
Victorian Minister for Roads, Luke Donnellan, said the upgrade will see a boost to the Victorian economy with the creation of 1,350 direct and indirect jobs.
“We’re fixing the bottlenecks with the works widening the M80 from two lanes to four lanes in each direction from Sunshine Avenue to EJ Whitten Bridge and from three lanes to five in each direction across the bridge through to Calder Freeway,” Mr Donnellan said.
“The M80 Ring Road upgrade will slash travel time by saving Greensborough-bound motorists up to 15 minutes and Altona-bound motorists up to ten minutes.”
“Temporary public safety barriers on the EJ Whitten Bridge will be installed over the coming weeks with permanent barriers to be installed by the end of the project,” Mr Donnellan said.
The Australian and Victorian governments are each contributing $150 million towards the $300 million upgrade.
The project is expected to be completed by late 2018.
