A quick tour

The road passes beneath the Arts Centre, next to Hamer Hall.

The gardens hide the road beneath.

The only sign at ground level being the parapet on the eastern side of St Kilda Road.

But the traffic sewer dominates the parklands below.

The underpass links Alexandra Avenue to the east.

With City Road to the west.

Five traffic lanes and a dank footpath passing beneath St Kilda Road.

As well as a slip road leading to Sturt Street and the Arts Centre loading dock.

And how it came to be

Once upon a time, the corner of St Kilda Road, City Road and Alexandra Avenue was at grade.

1967 photo from the Laurie Richards Collection, Item MM 54017, via Museums Victoria

With Melway edition 1 showing the road layout back in 1966.

But Melbourne was in the middle of a road building spree, including the City Ring Road and the Swan Street Bridge – completed in 1952.

Photo by fir0002 flagstaffotos [at] gmail.com Canon 20D + Canon 17-40mm f/4 L, via Wikimedia Commons

When proposed in 1946 the classic ‘congestion busting‘ line was given as a reason for construction of the bridge.

The Swan Street Bridge will provide a direct traffic route from South and Port Melbourne to Richmond and Collingwood without having to enter the city proper, and would ease Flinders Street congestion.

But the Town and Country Planning Board indicated in their 1948 annual report that the further road upgrades would be needed to take advantage of the new river crossing.

The Swan Street Bridge was placed on the urgent list by the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission in 1929, was recommended by an expert conference in 1936, and again by the conference called in 1946 by the Hon. P. J. Kennelly, M.L.C., when Minister of Public Works.

The bridge now being built as a continuation of Swan Street across the river will help the traffic problem in many ways. However it will be desirable to construct an underpass at St Kilda Road, either at Alexandra Avenue or Linlithgow Avenue.

Some objections been raised to the use of Alexandra Avenue by commercial vehicles, but the Board points out that the section of the avenue west of Jeffries Parade is now almost unused. Only approximately 1,100 vehicles passed along the section in both directions during the twelve hours of the census in 1947, a reduction of about one-third over the 1926 census figures, although the overall traffic of Melbourne increased by 62 per cent in the twenty years between the two counts.

Some re-arrangement of the unsatisfactory street system on the south bank of the River Yarra in the South Melbourne Municipality to link with the St Kilda Road underpass will also become necessary.

In April 1952 moves were made towards building such an underpass.

£210,000 Plan for Underpass

A. £210,000 traffic underpass is to be built under St Kilda Road at Alexandra Avenue. Cabinet last night instructed the Minister for Public Works (Mr. Byrnes) to prepare necessary legislation for the July session of Parliament. Mr. Byrnes said later he would discuss the work next week with the Metropolitan Board chairman (Mr. J. C Jessop) and the Chief Town
Planner (Mr. K P. Borrie)

The passing of the Melbourne (St Kilda Road Underpass) Lands Bill in 1969 converted Crown Land in the area to a road reserve, enabling Leighton Contractors to start on the project in April 1970.

Leighton Contractors photo

By August 1970 St Kilda Road had been diverted around the work site.

Leighton Contractors photo

And by June 1971 the eastern approach cutting was almost complete.

Leighton Contractors photo

Leighton Contractors described the scope of project in their 1971 company newsletter.

St Kilda Road is the main access route for traffic and trams approaching the City from the South. An underpass is being built to ease congestion at this major intersection for the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works. A $2 million contract was awarded in December, 1969, and reconstruction of nearby streets was begun so that work on the main structure and approach roads could begin in April, 1970.

The underpass structure has to be built in three phases so that traffic flow in St Kilda Road is not interrupted. Numerous underground and overhead services severely restrict the sequence of work.

Main construction items are:-

• 3 ft. and 8 ft. diameter cast in situ piles socketted into rock 100 ft. below surface.
• Driving of 7,000 ft. of prestressed concrete sheet piles.
• Erection of forty 110 ft. long precast concrete beams weighing up to 35 tons. Each of these is pretensioned in the factory and post tensioned on site.
• Excavation of 80,000 cu.yds, of various materials.
• Construction of 2,700 ft. of drainage lines including a 42″ diameter outfall into the Yarra River. A length of 180 ft. of this outfall was installed by jacking the pipes through an embankment.
• Constructing 1,600 ft. of concrete retaining walls up to 20 ft. high. These walls are specially shaped to deflect runaway vehicles.
• Providing various approach roads with both flexible and rigid pavements of various types.
• Building sawn basalt stonework to match that used on the adjoining Arts Centre.

The structure is being built over the old bed of the Yarra and during excavation numerous clay smoking pipes and old bottles of many shapes were recovered. Unfortunately most of the bottles were broken and all were empty. A brick kiln existed on the site many years ago and hundreds of old bricks have been dug out.

Despite these diversions the project should be finished by the end of the year.

Resulting in the road layout seen today.

Traffic using the underpass continued to grow, fed by the new West Gate Freeway through South Melbourne from 1987.

The road serving as the main link between the eastern and western suburbs of Melbourne.

Until 2000 when the Burnley and Domain Tunnels were opened as part of the CityLink project.

But the underpass is still busy today, due to overheight vehicles and dangerous goods tankers, neither of which can use the tunnels.

And don’t forget the trams!

Route 1 trams to South Melbourne once followed the entire length of Sturt Street, being diverted to Nolan Street (now called Southbank Boulevard) to make way for the underpass.

18 May 1969

A track junction was installed at Nolan Street in St Kilda Road, in preparation for diversion of the South Melbourne Beach route due to construction of the City Road underpass.

16 March 1970

A new track in Nolan Street, South Melbourne, was opened, from Sturt Street to St Kilda Road. It replaced the track in Sturt Street from Nolan Street to City Road, which was abandoned due to construction of the City Road underpass. A crossover was provided in Nolan Street at St Kilda Road.

By 1971 St Kilda Road trams were using temporary tracks around the work site, with the Edmund Fitzgibbon Memorial at the southern end of Princes Bridge also relocated for the underpass.

Ghost ramps?

The map 43 in the 1970 Melway directory feature ramps between St Kilda Road and the underpass – did they ever exist, or something descoped from the initial plans?

And the Victorian Arts Centre

The remaining Crown land between the underpass and the Yarra River was then permanently reserved as a site for the Victorian Arts Centre under the Melbourne (Snowden Gardens) Land Act 1975.

A Place Across the River: They Aspired to Create the Victorian Arts Centre by Vicki Fairfax details the saga behind that project.

Footnote: enabling legislation

Four pieces of Crown land were acquired for the underpass via the Melbourne (St Kilda Road Underpass) Lands Bill 1969.

North-west corner.

Whereas by Order in Council dated the 3rd day of February, 1914 certain Crown lands in the City of Melbourne were permanently reserved as a site for ornamental purposes and were vested in the corporation of the City of Melbourne by Order in Council of the 13th day of November, 1917 pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (b) of sub-section (1) of section 4 of the Prince’s Bridge Approach Act 1900.

South-east corner.

Whereas by an Order in Council dated the 8th day of May, 1905 certain Crown lands in the City of Melbourne were permanently reserved as a site for a memorial statue of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria and a public garden and Crown grant dated the 9th day of November, 1905.

Eastern side.

Whereas by an Order in Council dated the 5th day of August, 1913 certain Crown lands in the City of Melbourne were permanently reserved as a site for a public park for the recreation and amusement of His Majesty’s subjects and people designated the Alexandra Park and Crown grant dated the 18th day of December, 1917.

And south-west corner.

Whereas by an Order in Council dated the’ 7th day of May, 1957 certain Crown lands in the Cities of Melbourne and South Melbourne were permanently reserved as a site for a National Art Gallery and Cultural Centre and pursuant to the provisions of section 5 of the National Art Gallery and Cultural Centre Act 1956 Crown grant dated the 30th day of July, 1957.

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A crash involving two trucks and four cars has closed part of Melbourne's Monash Freeway this morning.

But incredibly, police say no-one was seriously hurt.

Three people have been taken to hospital, two with minor injuries and the third is in a stable condition. pic.twitter.com/cs8h2x7FXJ

— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) July 24, 2019

Cleanaway started operating their fleet of massive A-Double trucks from May 2017, following the opening of the South East Melbourne Transfer Station in Dandenong.

The facility acts as a consolidation point for rubbish collected from residential and commercial customers in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, where it is compressed into semi-trailers.

Then trucked 60 kilometres across Melbourne.

Eventually ending up at Ravenhall, where it is dumped into the Melbourne Regional Landfill.

On opening the South East Melbourne transfer station accepted a total of 580,000 tonnes of waste per annum, and has EPA approval to increase to a peak of 650,000 tonnes by 2029.

Assuming 286 operational weekdays per year, this means 2028 tonnes of rubbish needs to be moved per day – increasing to 2273 tonnes per day once the transfer station reaches design capacity.

Transported by A-double vehicles with an average load of 43 tonnes per truck, this give as weekday average of 47 trucks per day, increasing to 53 trucks per day at the peak – or six trucks per hour!

No wonder pedestrians avoid the road to Caroline Springs station like the plague.

A short history of these ‘monster’ trucks

Back in 2009 VicRoads commenced a two year trial of bigger ‘High Productivity Freight Vehicles’ serving the Port of Melbourne.

But with plans to introduce them elsewhere:

The use of next generation High Productivity Freight Vehicles (HPFVs) on key dedicated routes has the potential to reduce the number of trucks by almost a third, and reduce emissions and the cost of travel by up to 22 per cent on these routes.

With Victoria’s freight task forecast to approximately double by 2030, next generation HPFVs will be an important way to mitigate increasing congestion, emissions and the cost of our goods.

The trial of next generation HPFVs is an important step in the implementation of a Performance-Based Standards approach to heavy vehicle regulation in Victoria and the broader introduction of new, safe and efficient freight vehicles.

In 2013 the number of roads available to these massive trucks was expanded, following the adoption of the ‘Moving More with Less’ plan, and the types of trucks expanded to include 30-metre long A-doubles in 2017 thanks to the Performance Based Standard (PBS) scheme for trailers.

But is there another way?

Travelling from the Cleanaway transfer station at Dandenong South to the tip at Ravenhall is a 60 kilometre long trip across Melbourne, that takes around an hour via the Monash Freeway, CityLink, West Gate Bridge, Western Ring Road, and Deer Park Bypass.

But the Boral quarry next door to the Ravenhall tip already has a railway siding.

Which branches off the Ballarat line at Caroline Springs station.

With just a 1.3 kilometre drive between it and the tip.

The South East Melbourne Transfer Station is also near a rail siding.

Located on the Cranbourne line at Lyndhurst.

It may be a 7 kilometre long drive across Dandenong South.

But the siding is the site of a future inland port:

Salta’s Lyndhurst terminal is located near Dandenong
• 50,000 m/3 warehouse constructed for Bunnings
• Terminal yet to be constructed
• PRS shuttle trains would use:
• Broad gauge Pakenham & Cranbourne suburban rail lines
• Broad gauge V/Line & ARTC lines between Southern Cross and the Port

So why wasn’t the South East Melbourne Transfer Station built at the Lyndhurst intermodal terminal, with rubbish loaded into containers then transferred by train across Melbourne to Ravenhall, then trucked the last leg of the journey to the tip face?

Sydney proves it works

In 2004 Sydney ran out of space to bury their rubbish, so the Woodlawn open-cut mine near Goulburn was converted into a rubbish tip. Rubbish is loaded at the Clyde transfer station in western Sydney, but instead of a fleet of trucks, it is loaded onto a train.

Photo by Grahamec, via Wikimedia Commons

Each week six 55-carriage trains make the 250-kilometre journey, carrying 1200 tonnes of rubbish each time.

And back to Melbourne

Think moving bulk freight across Melbourne by rail won’t work?

Well, every weekday 1500 tonnes worth of worth of gravel roll through Flinders Street, loaded at a quarry in Kilmore East and bound for Westall.

As does 2000 tonnes of containers headed from Gippsland to the Port of Melbourne.

And 3000 tonnes of coil steel, headed for Hastings.

All three trains have been running since the 1970s – which proves that if there is a will to get freight onto rail, there is a way.

Sources

Melbourne Regional Landfill – Ravenhall.

• A new era in Melbourne’s south east as Cleanaway opens SEMTS (May 5, 2017)
• Traffic and Transport Assessment for the Melbourne Regional Landfill – Ravenhall (14 September 2016)

Bigger trucks.

• Monash Freeway reopens after multi-vehicle smash at peak hour, herald Sun (July 25, 2019)
• Victorian high productivity vehicles, Advantia Transport Consulting
• Victoria’s new HPFV networks for 30-metre A-doubles, Advantia Transport Consulting
• HPFVs – Moving more with less, VicRoads
• Performance Based Standards, joint report by the NHVR and ARTSA (2019 Edition)
• PBS Vehicle Configurations, National Heavy Vehicle Regulator
• Port Rail Shuttle Project Outline

Rubbish trains in Sydney.

• A complete space of waste, Sydney Morning Herald (August 2, 2004)
• Woodlawn Bioreactor, Veolia

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Five roads meet at the level crossing:

• High Street
• Edwardes Street
• Broadway
• Cheddar Road
• Spring Street

Forming a tangle of roads at the level crossing.

Way back in the 1980s the Railway Construction and Property Board looked into fixing the mess, and how the government could profit from grade separation.

The Engineering Division has continued to perform a wide range of tasks during 1981-82, including the examination of feasible options for incorporating commercial development, over railway tracks to be lowered, as a consequence of a proposed grade separation of the railway and High Street at Reservoir.

As did the Road Construction Authority, but they decided to kick the can down the road.

Options for improvements to Reservoir Rail Level Crossing and associated intersections were released in a Discussion Paper in October 1985.

The improvement schemes would reduce the current high traffic congestion levels, unsatisfactory accident record and traffic/pedestrian conflict. The investigation concluded that in the shorter term improvements to traffic movement and safety could be made by low cost at-grade intersection improvements.

Provision of grade separation by lowering the rail lines could follow later.

With VicRoads delivering a $12 million package of intersection upgrades instead.

After two years construction, the Reservoir level crossing project has been completed at a cost of $ 12m. Many improvements have been made to the intersections of Broadway with High Street, Spring Street with Edwards Street and High Street with Cheddar Road and Spring Street.

Linking has been improved between the various public transport modes, with increased commuter car parking for public transport users. The intersection modifications to the four intersections has improved safety for pedestrians and vehicles. For some traffic movements there has been a reduction in delays, particularly during peak periods.

Which were officially opened by Minister for Transport Peter Spyker on 27 April 1992.

It’s only taken 30 years, but work has finally started on grade separating the intersection – with the new viaduct and elevated Reservoir station is due for completion in 2020.

But the interesting part is to look at the long list of other road upgrade projects mentioned in the same 1986 Road Construction Authority annual report – what happened to them?

Western Bypass Investigation

This study to examine the form and precise location of a new road connection between the southern terminal of Tullamarine Freeway and Footscray Road commenced in late 1984.

The ‘Western Bypass’ was rolled into the CityLink project of the 1990s and extended south to the West Gate Freeway, opening in 2000.

Originally built with three lanes in each direction, in 2008 an extra lane opened.

Eastern Corridor – Doncaster to Ringwood

In its early stages the Metropolitan Roads Access Study (METRAS) identified traffic congestion, together with the associated environmental and safety effects both on arterial and local roads, as a major issue in the Eastern Corridor.

One possible traffic management option to relieve these problems was seen to be the development of an arterial road along the Eastern Road Reservation. This road could extend from the Eastern Freeway Terminal at Doncaster Road to the Maroondah Highway at Mt Dandenong Road, Ringwood.

The Eastern Freeway extension was opened to Springvale Road in 1997.

Then extended to Ringwood in 2008 as part of the EastLink.

Pascoe Vale Road Relief Study (PVRRS)

In September 1985, the Minister for Transport announced his support for the Pascoe Vale Road Relief Study recommendation that a 7.8 km section of the R5 outer ring route be constructed between Sharps Road, Tullamarine and Mahoneys Road, Fawkner.

Opened in 1992 as the first section of the Western Ring Road.

Then an extra lane added in 2009.

Calder Highway – Diggers Rest to Gisborne

Investigations into the future development of the Calder Highway between Diggers Rest and Gisborne were completed in early 1986. This work included a review of initial proposals in the light of submissions received from affected property owners, concerned Shire councils and various government agencies. A summary of the review, together with an outline of the Adopted Proposal for the duplication of the highway with provision for long term development to freeway standards, was released in May 1986.

The Diggers Rest bypass was opened in 1993, duplication to Kyneton completed in 2003, and to Bendigo by 2009.

Princes Highway West – Dennington to lllowa

A summary of investigations into the future development of this section of the Princes Highway was released to affected property owners, Council and various government agencies in October 1985. This section of the highway has low geometric standards and a higher than average accident rate, and the pavement will require major rehabilitation in a few years time if it is to be retained for State highway traffic.

The proposed realignment, which makes use of a portion of the closed Dennington to Port Fairy railway line would improve overtaking opportunities and increase safety by reducing the frustration of drivers and the conflict between through traffic and access to abutting land.

Completed in the 1990s.

That’s five out of five road projects completed, with three of them having received further expansion since they were initially completed.

Sources

• Road Construction Authority 1986 annual report

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CityLink consists of two tunnels – the shorter Domain Tunnel that carries westbound traffic, and the longer Burnley Tunnel that carries eastbound traffic – with roadheaders being used to construct the majority of each tube. However at each end of the tunnel, the project faced the same problems as the Melbourne Metro tunnels.

At the western end of both tunnels is Grant Street and St Kilda Road, full of both road and tramway traffic.

Here a ‘top down’ methodology was adopted while digging the massive hole.

Excavations for cut & cover works at Grant Street May 1998 (Ian Hill, SLV image H99.20/24)

The 2002 book Journey and Arrival: The Story of the Melbourne CityLink published by the Institution of Engineers, Australia elaborates:

The conventional cut-and-cover method was not used at the Grant Street portal, in part to accommodate the impact on the adjacent Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The size of the excavation necessary for cut-and-cover was huge: 35 metres wide and progressively increasing in depth to about 25 metres at St Kilda Road.

The top-down technique used along Grant Street involved the installation of columns along the alignment of the outer walls of the tunnels, and along the centre line which would ultimately form the barrier between the two tunnels. This was achieved by drilling holes about 900 mm in diameter to bedrock, and then backfilling the holes with concrete. A concrete beam was then constructed along the top of the columns to form the support for the tunnel roof. Once the spans were in place, Grant Street was reinstated and excavation took place unimpeded beneath the deck.

The top-down variation of the cut-and-cover method also reduced the disruption on St Kilda Road, a major thoroughfare with busy tram lines. In fact tram services were closed on only one weekend. The crossing of St Kilda Road was undertaken in stages. Initially the outer service roads were closed and traffic was diverted to the central roadway. This allowed the construction of the columns and tunnel roof in the same manner as along Grant Street. However, extensive propping was necessary under the surface to support the columns against the 25 metre depth of soil pressure. Once work on the outer service roads was completed, traffic was re-diverted to allow work on the central part of the road.

Meanwhile at the east end of the Domain Tunnel was the Yarra River, which passed only a few metres above the future tunnel roof.

It was decided to build the river crossing in two stages, with a coffer dam being used to keep the water out while allowing the river to keep flowing.

Coffer dam construction in Yarra River for Domain Tunnel 26/4/97 (Ian Hill, SLV image H99.20/10)

Again, Journey and Arrival: The Story of the Melbourne CityLink gives the technical details:

The construction of the cut-and-cover crossing of the Yarra River represented some of the cleverest engineering of the whole project. Essentially, a trench had to be cut in the riverbed, the tunnel built in it, and the riverbed placed back on top.

As these works could not proceed easily underwater, the river had to be diverted away from the riverbed worksite during construction. The most efficient way to do this, while ensuring minimum disruption to river flows and traffic, was to work on the crossing in two parts: initially shutting off about two thirds of the river from one bank, and, when completed, switching to the other bank, then closing the other third of the river to complete the process.

What does it mean for Melbourne Metro?

Back in April 2015 how to built the Melbourne Metro tunnels beneath the Yarra River was still unresolved – possible solutions being an immersed tube tunnel, or CityLink style cut and cover using a coffer dam.

This week the final solution was announced – a tunnel boring machine would do the work, with the tunnel running to the east of Princes Bridge, around seven metres below the riverbed, and 11 metres below the surface.

More photos of CityLink

The State Library of Victoria holds the ‘Melbourne City Link Project Series‘ – images taken by photographer Ian Hill during the construction of CityLink.

• Concrete pour for roof of Domain Tunnel inside coffer dam in Yarra River
• Grant Street entrance for Domain Tunnel showing cut & cover works
• Entrance to Domain Tunnel at Grant Street

There is a lot more technical details in Journey and Arrival: The Story of the Melbourne CityLink – I’ve just scraped the surface in this post.

VicRoads also have an interesting CityLink related document on their website – Exhibit I Project Scope and Technical Requirements.

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