VIC Heavy traffic on The Western Ring Road. 'Missing link': North East ring road to get $100m

If it goes ahead, it will be interesting to see price dynamics in the suburbs that may be positively impacted based on the article in theage (link below).

Melbourne's 'missing link': North East ring road to get $100m in budget

 

this reminds me of when the highway came to ringwood

 

something like this?

 

I saw this this morning on theage.com.au. I dont think surrounding subrubs will be affected that much, back in 2008 suburbs were much cheaper.

What were the effects of any infrastructure upgrade? What were the real effects? I can only relate to the following:

- Nunawading: Station went under, traffic now is good and flows well, not sure of effect both financially and non financially on the suburb itself. A few apartments have sprung up and the little shopping strip is now reborn, it was kind of dead before?

Springvale was similar Nunawading but improvement in traffic was better and somewhat breathed life into the other side of the town (Northern side of tracks

These two were before the Labor government was in power and pretty much isolated cases.

What's so great about freeways? I see no real benefit from a ppor tbh.

 

The only thing I can see is that the northern suburbs will get more popular as people are priced out of eastern suburbs. With the freeway implemented, it would be easier for people living in the north to reach to the east, so making northern suburbs more popular.

 

When someone chooses a place to live, they would consider what transport / infrastructure is available to them.

Investors generally think that a train station will have a postive impact to house prices because the distance of your suburb from the CBD becomes less of an issue if a train can get you to places more quickly.

Similar to a freeway. It helps people to get to places quicker and there is value in that. People who may not have considered a suburb because of a lack of infrastructure, may rethink about that suburb again. This should drive more demand into the northern suburbs.

Now whether there will be a large impact to property prices, time will tell. But a good proxy is to look at Eastlink. I do not think property prices in Ringwood had boomed after the completion of Eastlink, however, this major infrastructure upgrade did help to drive more businesses into Ringwood. One of the major selling points of business parks in Ringwood is that it has good access to Eastlink. If more jobs are created in an area that is good for property prices? So I think we shouldn't underestimate the indirect benefits of a major freeway too.

Bringing it back to the Northern suburbs, the state government is pumping lots of money into Epping, and if the North-West link is completed, I would imagine the Northern surburbs would see a material impact to property prices similar to Ringwood?

The traffic around the northern surburbs is horrible and apparently this new link will reduce congestion by alot and this will be so important as our population grows.

 

Why the hell did we spend $2 billion on a link that didn't happen? i'll be in a nursing home by the time Victoria fixes our infrastructure problem.

Cheers Ivan

 

It wont get off the ground I don't think especially if the Greenborough path is used. Think about it, if that path is used, there will be tunneling work, payoff would be crap for any state gov OR private enterprise...and this government (see examples of skyrail) takes the cheapest path. Kangaroo Ground would be the easiest path but probably not very effective...The best path would be the Greenborough path to alleviate trucks loading smaller arterioles but as i said, tunneling will cost the roof.

I can't see any added value even to the outer suburbs? These roads dont lead to the CBD....

Most NE suburbs have already moved, even Eltham is now exxy, but thats more because of the movement in general in Melbourne. Friend lives in Eltham and when I visit his family the place is simply gorgeous...

 

IT appears that the roads are designed based on the assumption that everyone works or needs to go to the CBD. After the state government had introduced activity centres, having good road access between these centres have become more important. From an economic point of view there appears to be a good business case for it as the cost benefit ratio of the project is around 1.4-2.1 (see Draft 30-year infrastructure strategy tackles road congestion | Infrastructure Victoria). I think the east-west link was less than 1 and this would have provided better access to the CBD.

Doubt seems to be coming from whether the government has the political will to do this. I'm not sure if they do. But if we look in the past, their commitment to remove 50 railway crossing had surprised me. So they have regained some credibility. If they are re-announcing their intention to proceed and making a big fuss about it, it seems like there is a good chance that the project will go ahead.

It's a question of whether if they have politically committed themselves to complete the project. What happens if they don't follow through? The liberals support this project so it's a bit hard to back track now?

 

I think for the long term a full ring road around makes sense for commute from north to east and for trucks and links the east to the airport and freight and all required. This would take loads off the monash fwy, Tullamarine fwy and northern suburbs especially around Rosanna road which is a nightmare.

Think it will help with prices in areas such as Greensborough, Heidelberg, Watsonia and Rosanna. Melbourne is expected to grow to 8 million in some estimates

 

I don't know if those suburbs will benefit really, sure, it will get trucks off Rosanna Road etc. but you really want a freeway at the back of you? I somehow think suburbs like Epping would benefit...

 

Well said.....