Westall Road (also known as the Springvale Bypass) is a major north to south thoroughfare west of Springvale,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Route

Starting at the intersection with

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...

in Clayton, the road head south as a six-lane, dual-carriageway road, intersecting with Centre Road, over the Cranbourne and Pakenham railway lines and an intersection with Heatherton Road, all with a speed limit of 80 km/h. Westall Road then continues on as a semi-freeway standard road along the reservation of the Dingley Freeway with a speed limit of 80 km/h (formerly 100 km/h until the intersection with Dingley Bypass), where it narrows to a four-lane dual-carriageway road and heads south-east until it reaches

Springvale Road State (Bell/Springvale) Highway, also known as Bell Street/Springvale Road State Highway (after its longest constituent parts), is the longest self-contained urban highway in Melbourne, Australia, linking Tullamarine Freeway and Nepean Highway ...

. It continues as the

Dandenong Bypass The Dandenong Bypass is a highway in the state of Victoria, Australia that runs along the Dingley Freeway reservation from Springvale Road in Keysborough to the South Gippsland Highway in Dandenong South. History The Dandenong Bypass was compl ...

east eventually to

Dandenong South Dandenong South is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 31 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Greater Dandenong local government area. Dandenong South recorded a population of 125 a ...

History

Historically before the reconstruction and extension works, Westall Road ran as a semi-major road from just south of the Dandenong Rail line at Westall Station to Heatherton Road, and as a minor road from the railway line to Centre Road. The previous thoroughfare consisted of taking McNaughton Road, Kombi Road and Rayhur Street. The extensions north to Princes Highway and south to Springvale Road were designed to reduce traffic which travels through Springvale via Springvale Road, as it has a 70 km/h speed limit for most of its length in which it is bypassed as well as having a reduced 60 km/h limit through the Springvale shopping area with this dropping to 40 km/h during school times. Traffic was further delayed by the

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

adjacent to

Springvale Station Springvale or Springvale Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Springvale Aggregation was created when Springvale was purchased along with Alice Downs, Mabel Down ...

until 2014, and the particularly slow

Springvale Junction Springvale Junction is a particularly notorious road intersection in Melbourne. It is situated on the boundary of the suburbs of Mulgrave and Springvale. Intersection Springvale junction forms the intersection of four major roads, two of whic ...

. The upgrade of Westall Road has allowed north–south through traffic to avoid this area. Westall Road was signed as Metropolitan Route 49 between Clayton and Clayton South in 1989, extended south to Keysborough when the southern extension opened in 1995, and extended north to Clayton when the northern extension opened in 2001. The passing of the ''Road Management Act 2004'' granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to

VicRoads VicRoads is a government joint venture in the state of Victoria, Australia. In the state, it is responsible for driver licensing and vehicle registration. It is owned and operated through a joint venture between the Victorian government and a c ...

: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Westall Road (Arterial #5056), beginning at

at Clayton and ending at

Keysborough Keysborough is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 27 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Greater Dandenong local government area. Keysborough recorded a population of 30,018 at the . ...

Springvale Bypass (Stage 1)

Prior to construction of the bypass, Westall Road (as it existed) from Heatherton Road to Centre Road consisted of a simple dual-lane undivided road. The northern section of Stage 1 - an extension of Westall Road from Centre Road in

Clayton South Clayton South is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 20 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston Local Government Areas of Victoria, loc ...

north to

in Clayton - was built as a six-lane dual-carriageway road using unreinforced concrete pavement, opening in October 1992. To better enable Westall Road to serve as a high-capacity alternative route to Springvale Road, the southern section of Stage 1 - a new six-lane dual-carriageway alignment running parallel just to the west of the existing Westall Road - was constructed between Centre Road and Rayhur Street, including a

grade separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tra ...

level crossing over the Pakenham and

Cranbourne railway line The Cranbourne line is a commuter rail service operated by Metro Trains Melbourne in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It operates along the inner section of the former South Gippsland line. The service is part of ...

s, in conjunction with duplication works to upgrade Westall Road to a six lane divided road between Rayhur Street and Heatherton Road; these works were completed by April 2001.VicRoads – Road Safety Management
Page 5

Springvale Bypass (Stage 2)

The southern extension of Westall Road runs along the

Dingley Arterial The Dingley Arterial Road Project (in the Dingley Freeway reserve) is a partially completed arterial standard road which runs east to west through the southern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Although the road was designed to be a freeway for ...

route from Heatherton Road in

Springvale South Springvale South is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Greater Dandenong local government area. Springvale South recorded a population of 12,766 ...

. It commenced construction in 1994 and was finished in 1995. The extension was previously known as the Westall Road Extension from 1995 to 2016. The works involved creating a 2.8 km divided four lane (two lanes each way) semi-freeway standard road to bypass the busy and congested centre of Springvale. The extension involves constructing part of the Dingley Freeway to the future site of an interchange with Westall Road before travelling along a temporary alignment to join up with the extended Westall Road south of Heatherton Road. A speed limit of 100 km/h applied between Heatherton Road and Rowan Road from 1995 until 2016 when it was permanently changed to 80 km/h as a result of the

Dingley Bypass Dingley Bypass is an arterial road in southeastern Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that travels along the Dingley Arterial route from Westall Road to Warrigal Road. After the intersection with Warrigal Road, the highway continues further west as ...

. The reason being VicRoads determined the stretch of road too short to have a limit of 100 km/h. The limit had always been an 80 km/h limit on the approaches to Heatherton and Springvale Roads. A bicycle path was completed along the entire length of the road. As a result of the

, there is now a T-intersection in place close to Heatherton Road connecting both the bypass and Westall Road. Original plans were for grade separation at this intersection.

Major intersections

References

{{Road infrastructure in Melbourne Highways and freeways in Melbourne Transport in the City of Kingston (Victoria) Transport in the City of Greater Dandenong