Melton Highway | |
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Coordinates | |
General information | |
Type | Highway |
Length | 18.9 km (12 mi)[1] |
Route number(s) |
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Former route number | ![]() |
Major junctions | |
West end | Ferris Road Melton, Melbourne |
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East end | ![]() Taylors Lakes, Melbourne |
Location(s) | |
Major suburbs | Plumpton,Bonnie Brook,Hillside,Sydenham,Taylors Lakes |
Highway system | |
Melton Highway (formerlyKeilor–Melton Road)[2] linksMelbourne's outer north-western suburbs ofMelton andTaylors Lakes (western Keilor as the old name suggests), connecting theWestern Freeway andCalder Freeway to provide a more-direct route betweenBallarat andMelbourne andEssendon airports; it has a Victorian route designation of C754.
Melton Highway commences at the diamond interchange with Western Freeway and heads north as a four-lane, dual-carriageway road, intersecting shortly afterwards with High Street through centralMelton, and then Gisborne-Melton Road, before narrowing back to a dual-lane, single-carriageway road heading east, sign-posted at 70 km/h as the road bends and dips to crossKororoit Creek, increases to 80 km/h afterwards and then eventually to 100 km/h throughPlumpton. The speed limit drops back to 80 km/h approachingHillside, where the road widens to a four-lane, dual-carriageway and continues east throughSydenham andTaylors Lakes, pastWatergardens Town Centre, to eventually terminate at the intersection with Sunshine Avenue inKeilor. Increases in traffic has seen the road upgraded with many overtaking lanes, and increasing residential levels at the eastern (Sydenham) end has seen further duplication of carriageways and reconstruction of the railway crossing just north of Sydenham (Watergardens) station.
The alignment of Keilor–Melton Road was altered at both ends through the 1980s:
Keilor–Melton Road was signed as Metropolitan Route 54 between Melton and Keilor in 1989; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, this was replaced with route C754.
The passing of theTransport Act of 1983[3] (itself an evolution from the originalHighways and Vehicles Act of 1924[4]) provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through theRoad Construction Authority (laterVicRoads). TheState Highway (Keilor-Melton Road) was declared a State Highway in November 1989,[5] fromWestern Freeway inMelton to Sunshine Avenue inTaylors Lakes where it meets the ramps to theCalder Freeway, then re-declared as theMelton Highway just over a year later in December 1990,[6] within the same alignment.
The passing of theRoad Management Act 2004[7] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declaredMelton Highway (Arterial #6040) fromWestern Freeway inMelton to Sunshine Avenue inTaylors Lakes.[2]
In September 2018, the former level crossing through theSunbury/Bendigo railway line was replaced by a new 6-lane bridge overpass, with new bike lanes and footpaths on each side, and new paths underneath.[8] The railway carries more than 200 trains each weekday and the road carries 38,000 vehicles per day.[9]
LGA | Location[1][2] | km[1] | mi | Destinations | Notes |
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Melton | Cobblebank–Melton boundary | 0.0 | 0.0 | Ferris Road – Cobblebank | Western terminus of highway and routes C754/C801, continues south as Ferris Road |
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Melton | 0.5 | 0.31 | ![]() | Eastern terminus of concurrency with route C801 | |
1.2 | 0.75 | ![]() | |||
Plumpton–Bonnie Brook boundary | 6.3 | 3.9 | Leakes Road – Plumpton,Rockbank | ||
9.5 | 5.9 | Plumpton Road – Plumpton,Bonnie Brook | |||
Hillside | 13.7 | 8.5 | The Parks (north) – Hillside Gourlay Road (south) – Taylors Hill | ||
Melton–Brimbank boundary | Hillside–Sydenham boundary | 14.7 | 9.1 | Calder Park Drive – Calder Park,Taylors Hill | |
Brimbank | Sydenham–Taylors Lakes boundary | 15.9 | 9.9 | Bendigo railway line | |
Taylors Lakes | 17.0 | 10.6 | ![]() ![]() | ||
Taylors Lakes–Keilor Lodge–Keilor tripoint | 18.9 | 11.7 | ![]() | ||
![]() ![]() | Eastern terminus of highway and route C754 | ||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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