East-West Link Needs Assessment – Tunnel Plans for Fitzroy North

Proposed Road Tunnel – Eastern Freeway to Brunswick Street

This diagram was prepared by The 3068 Group based on recommendations of the East-West Link Needs Assessment (EWLNA) Final Report. April 2008

For a high resolution image click this link to download 1.6 Mbytes

East Bound Surface Routes:

Pink: From Hoddle Street to Ports, West, CityLink and Airport via tunnel (new).

Pink: From Queens Parade to Ports and West via tunnel (new).

Blue: From Eastern Freeway to City via Alexandra Pde, Nicholson, Rathdowne, Lygon, Swanston St (existing).

Blue: From Queens Parade to City via Alexandra Pde, Nicholson, Rathdowne, Lygon, Swanston St (existing).

Yellow Dots: Tunnel from Eastern Freeway Ports, West, CityLink and Airport via tunnel entrance at Hoddle St (new).

West Bound Surface Routes:

Orange: From City to Queens Parade (existing).

Orange: From City to Eastern Freeway via Alexandra Parade (existing).

Red: From Ports, Western Ring Road and City Link to Queens Parade, Heidelberg Road and High St (new).

Red: From Ports, Western Ring Road and City Link to Hoddle, Smith and Wellington St via Alexandra Parade (new).

Yellow Dots: Tunnel from Ports, Western Ring Road and City Link to Eastern Freeway via tunnel exit at Hoddle St (new).

Notes:

The Eddington study recommended tunnel openings at Queens Parade, as well as at the end of the Eastern freeway.

Tunnel Openings at Queens Parade and Alexandra Parade will ensure that these boulevards will be even more congested with surface traffic than the tunnels underneath. The tunnel will not reduce city bound traffic at the surface.

There will be a large increase in traffic on Queens Parade, and a higher proportion of trucks and freight from the ports, and the western ring road.

There will be no opportunity for remediation of Alexandra Parade or Princes Street, as these roads will continue to carry the same or more traffic than today.

The tunnel does not require any city exits because Alexandra Parade provides 3 lanes of city exits and Hoddle Street provides 3 more lanes of city exits, so tunnel exits to the city are not required.

The photo of the red exhaust tower was taken on the day of a crash and fire in CityLink.

Normally you don’t see the pollution pumped out of the stack.

The exact location of the stack is not known, but the consultants reported 4-6 ventilation stacks are required, spaced every 2-3kms.

The precise location of the tunnel ramps was not published in the report, just the general location and purpose.

City of Yarra officers met with the Eddington Study Team an confirmed the following:

“1.        that the Eddington study proposes certain outcomes but that much greater testing / validation is required should the State Government
wish to proceed with the recommendations - we are advised that only preliminary feasibility has been undertaken and any proposal would require a more detailed analysis and development
2.        that 3 lanes of traffic off the Eastern freeway would go under Hoddle Street into a tunnel - the entrance to the tunnel would start
some way east of Hoddle Street for gradient reasons. We were advised that the exact location has not been determined at this time
3.        that the existing left turn lane into Alexandra Parade from Hoddle Street (heading north) would effectively continue and that would then also lead to a portal into the tunnel
4.        that no exit is recommended to the CAD heading west from any tunnel
5.        that an exit from a tunnel would be likely in Queens Parade heading east
6.        that a ventilation facility would be required near the end of the tunnel - further clarification on this is being sought on the frequency of these along the path of any tunnel
7.        that no flyover is proposed in the vicinity of the Gas and Fuel site
8.        that it is not particularly clear how traffic heading west along Queens Parade would enter the tunnel - that may be via George Street but also it may need to be a road connection further to the east to enable the necessary radii of a road connection to go into a portal to the tunnel - it was mentioned that no overpasses are proposed
9.        that if the proposal were to proceed then it is likely to be a cut / dig and cover approach for the area between Hoddle Street heading west for some distance and then a tunneling exercise

It is very clear that any proposals such as the above would involve a very major construction process - this would impact for some period in many respects but that impact is not clear at this point in time.  

Further, the urban design aspects would involve many changes to the area as it is currently known and whilst some capture of road space for buses etc on Alexandra Parade and for greening purposes etc is proposed, it is again unclear at this stage what the visualisation of these works would be like.