Melton Highway

Melton Highway Victoria
West end East end
Coordinates	37.695420°S 144.603876°E / -37.695420; 144.603876 (West end) 37.701839°S 144.801928°E / -37.701839; 144.801928 (East end)
General information
Type	Highway
Length	18.9 km (12 mi)[1]
Route number(s)	C754 (1998–present) Entire route Concurrencies: C801 (1998–present) (through Melton)
Former route number	Metro Route 54 (1989–1998)
Major junctions
West end	Ferris Road Melton, Melbourne
	Western Freeway High Street Federation Drive Kings Road Sunshine Avenue
East end	Calder Freeway Taylors Lakes, Melbourne
Location(s)
Major suburbs	Plumpton, Bonnie Brook, Hillside, Sydenham, Taylors Lakes
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in Victoria

Melton Highway (formerly Keilor–Melton Road)[2] links Melbourne's outer north-western suburbs of Melton and Taylors Lakes (western Keilor as the old name suggests), connecting the Western Freeway and Calder Freeway to provide a more-direct route between Ballarat and Melbourne and Essendon airports; it has a Victorian route designation of C754.

Route

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 central Melton, 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 cross Kororoit Creek, increases to 80 km/h afterwards and then eventually to 100 km/h through Plumpton. The speed limit drops back to 80 km/h approaching Hillside, where the road widens to a four-lane, dual-carriageway and continues east through Sydenham and Taylors Lakes, past Watergardens Town Centre, to eventually terminate at the intersection with Sunshine Avenue in Keilor. 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.

History

The alignment of Keilor–Melton Road was altered at both ends through the 1980s:

• its eastern end in Keilor, originally terminating with the Calder Highway (today Old Calder Highway) in northern Keilor, was truncated to terminate at Sunshine Avenue to provision new ramps to the Calder Freeway when the Keilor bypass opened in 1984; the former alignment is now known as Old Calder Highway
• its western end in Melton, originally terminating with the Western Highway (today High Street) in central Melton, was re-aligned to terminate at a new interchange with the Western Freeway when the Melton bypass opened in 1987; the former alignment is now known as Melton Valley Drive and Sherwin Court

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 the Transport Act of 1983[3] (itself an evolution from the original Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[4]) provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Road Construction Authority (later VicRoads). The State Highway (Keilor-Melton Road) was declared a State Highway in November 1989,[5] from Western Freeway in Melton to Sunshine Avenue in Taylors Lakes where it meets the ramps to the Calder Freeway, then re-declared as the Melton Highway just over a year later in December 1990,[6] within the same alignment.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[7] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared Melton Highway (Arterial #6040) from Western Freeway in Melton to Sunshine Avenue in Taylors Lakes.[2]

In September 2018, the former level crossing through the Sunbury/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]

Intersections

LGA	Location[1][2]	km[1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Melton	Cobblebank–Melton boundary	0.0	0.0	Ferris Road – Cobblebank	Western terminus of highway and routes C754/C801, continues south as Ferris Road
				Western Freeway (M8) – Ballarat, Bacchus Marsh, Deer Park
	Melton	0.5	0.31	High Street (C801) – Melton	Eastern terminus of concurrency with route C801
		1.2	0.75	Federation Drive (Gisborne-Melton Road) (C705) – Toolern Vale, Gisborne
	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	Kings Road (Metro Route 77) – Keilor North, Deer Park, to Calder Freeway (M79 west) – Bendigo
	Taylors Lakes–Keilor Lodge–Keilor tripoint	18.9	11.7	Sunshine Avenue (Metro Route 41) – Keilor Lodge, Sunshine, Altona
				Calder Freeway (M79 east) – Essendon, City, Melbourne Airport	Eastern terminus of highway and route C754
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Route transition

See also

Australian Roads portal

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Victoria
• List of highways in Melbourne

References

1. "Melton Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
2. VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. pp. 938–9. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
3. State of Victoria, An Act to Re-enact with Amendments the Law relating to Transport including the Law with respect to Railways, Roads and Tramways... 23 June 1983
4. State of Victoria, An Act to make further provision with respect to Highways and Country Roads Motor Cars and Traction Engines and for other purposes 30 December 1924
5. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 29 November 1989. pp. 3057–8. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
6. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 19 December 1990. pp. 3783, 3791. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
7. State Government of Victoria. "Road Management Act 2004" (PDF). Government of Victoria. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
8. "Six and out for Melton Highway's road bridge". Level Crossing Removal Authority, Government of Victoria. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
9. "Melton Highway, Sydenham". Level Crossing Removal Authority, Government of Victoria. Retrieved 29 December 2016.