1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan


The 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan was a road and rail transport plan for Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia, instituted by Henry Bolte's state government. Most prominently, the plan recommended the provision of an extensive freeway network, much of which has since been built.
Despite the majority of the printed material being devoted to non-car transport, 86 per cent of the projected budget was devoted to roads and parking, with only 14 per cent to other forms of transport. The plan recommended of freeways for metropolitan Melbourne, as well as a number of railways. Of the latter, only the City Underground Loop was constructed. Proposed lines to Doncaster and Monash University, and between Dandenong and Frankston, were never built.
The plan was described by J.M. Thompson in Great Cities and their Traffic as "clearly... a highway plan, not – as it is called – a comprehensive transport plan", and by historian Graeme Davison as "the most expansive and expensive freeway experiment in Australian history".
In 1973, some freeway plans were pruned, especially those proposed for the inner city, with State Premier Rupert Hamer cancelling all the road reservations for the unbuilt urban freeways in 1976.
Some significant outer suburban freeway projects, under new branding, were built by subsequent governments, including CityLink, EastLink and Peninsula Link.

Background

The plan consisted of three volumes:
  • Survey – completed for the Melbourne Transportation Committee by Wilbur Smith & Associates and Len T Frazer & Associates
  • Parking – completed for the Melbourne Transportation Committee by Wilbur Smith & Associates and Len T. Frazer & Associates
  • The Transportation Plan – completed by the Melbourne Transportation Committee.
The scope of the plan specified surveys of vehicular and personal travel, transport facilities, goods movement by road and rail, and central city parking. It built on the previous major Melbourne Transport Plans:
and the minor
  • 1961 Metropolitan Street Service Study by Traffic Commission Victoria.

Goals

The goals of the plan were to:
  • ensure safe, comfortable and efficient movement of people and goods throughout the design area
  • maintain a proper balance between public and private transport
  • make maximum use of the existing facilities and plans and the commitments already embodied in these plans
  • provide a transport service matched to the expectant demand throughout the design area
  • provide a system that could be adapted to meet changing conditions and be expanded beyond the design year
  • provide a transport network which could be implemented with as little interference to the commercial and community structure as possible

Funding

The costs of the development of the plan were shared by the four participating authorities:
Minor contributions were provided by Melbourne City Council and the Transport Regulation Board.

Methodology

The process adopted was:
  • Inventory of transport facilities, travel and developmental features of the study area
  • Forecast of 1985 travel requirements
  • Evaluation of tentative 1985 plan
  • Periodic review

Organisation

The organisation required to develop the plan included:
  • Metropolitan Transportation Committee – a statutory body established in 1963 to advise government on all transport factors
  • Technical Committee – consisting of senior representatives of transportation and other authorities on the main committee, its job was to oversee all technical matters arising during surveys and preparation of the plan
  • Consultants – Wilbur Smith and Associates and Len T Frazer and Associates
  • Study Group – engineers who were assigned from participating authorities to be trained by the consultants and assist in data collection and analysis This group was expanded to include economists responsible for costing the final plan

Road

The plan proposed a budget of:
  • $1.675 billion for freeways
  • $64 million for divided arterial roads
  • $28 million on new arterial roads
  • $359 million on widening existing roads and bridges
  • $95 million for road/rail 80 grade separations

Major radial

F4 West Calder Freeway - Built 1970–presentF9 West Lower Yarra Freeway, Built 1971-1978F14 East Southeastern Freeway, Built 1972-2003F14 West Tullamarine Freeway - Built 1965-1979F19 Eastern Freeway - Partly built 1977-1997

Minor radial

F1 Collingwood Freeway - AbandonedF2 North Hume Freeway - Northern section partly built connecting Hume Freeway & Metropolitan Ring Road. Southern section - AbandonedF2 South Dingley Freeway - Partly built 1994–present, but not of freeway standard F4 East Calder Freeway - AbandonedF5 East Greensborough Freeway - Partly built, but not of freeway standard F5 West Metro Ring Road - Partly built as the Western Ring RoadF6 North Chandler Freeway - AbandonedF6 South Nepean Freeway – Partly built as the Mornington Peninsula Freeway 1975–presentF9 East Healesville Freeway - Not builtF12 Freeway - AbandonedF18 Freeway - Abandoned F35 South Frankston Freeway - Built 1962-1973

Inner city bypasses

F9 Southern Bypass, Built in 1997F14 Western Bypass, Built in 1997

Ring roads

F3/F5 Western Ring Road - Built 1992-1997F5/F7 Northern Ring Road, Partly Built 1996-1999F35 North Scoresby Freeway/Eastern Ring Road, Built in 2008
A North East Link between the eastern and northern ring roads was originally designed but construction has begun as of 2020 with major works to begin mid 2021.

Parking

The plan included a proposed budget of $40 million for improvements in parking in the Melbourne central business district.

Buses

The plan included a proposed budget $58 million for bus improvements:
  • $50 million for 2,540 new buses
  • $8 million for new bus depots

Rail

The forecast budget for railway projects was $242 million. Planned rail projects included:

Trams

The plan included a proposed budget $55 million for 910 new trams.