Metropolitan Route 40, Melbourne
|
State (Bell/Springvale) Highway Victoria |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Road |
| Length | 57 km (35 mi) |
| Route number(s) |
|
| Former route number |
 State Route 11Along Springvale Road |
| West end |
  Tullamarine Freeway, Strathmore, Melbourne
|
| South end |
 Nepean Highway, Edithvale, Melbourne
|
| Major suburbs | Coburg, Heidelberg, Doncaster, Nunawading, Glen Waverley, Springvale |
State Route 40
Tourist Route 2
State Route 47
State Route 36
The State (Bell/Springvale) Highway, also known as Route 40 or the Bell / Springvale State Highway, is the longest urban highway in Melbourne (other than the Princes Highway) linking Tullamarine Freeway and the Nepean Highway. It is classed as an arterial road, and allocated State Route 40. Various street names are used along the highway – Banksia Street, Bell-Banksia Link, Bell Street, Manningham Road, and Springvale Road.
The highway experiences considerable congestion. Throughout the 1980s and '90s, the Doncaster Road section carried around 50,000 vehicles per hour at peak, but this number dropped in 1997 after the extension of the Eastern Freeway.
Several level crossings are located along the highway, in Edithvale, Preston and Coburg. With the completion of works in January 2010 to lower the rail line in Nunawading, plus an older one in Heidelberg, there are now two railway grade separations along the route. As of May 2014, a level crossing at Springvale has also been removed.
The road itself varies in capacity over its length between three-laned dual carriageways and two-way single carriageways. Many junctions such as the Nepean Highway, Princes Highway, Monash Freeway, Eastern Freeway, Hume Highway and Tullamarine Freeway contribute to large traffic volumes along Route 40.
There are a variety of street names along the route, many of which are familiar to motorists and used on radio traffic updates, including:
The original 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan showed the F4 Freeway following the Tullamarine Freeway, Bell and Banksia Streets, to Williamsons Road then joining the F7 Freeway heading south along the Middleborough Road and the Blackburn Road corridor to the F2 Freeway (Dingley Freeway section) between Clayton and Westall Roads (rather than Springvale Road).
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