The Tullamarine Freeway (commonly referred to as The Tulla), is a major urban freeway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, linking Melbourne Airport to the Melbourne City Centre. It carries up to 210,000 vehicles per day and is one of Australia's busiest freeways. The entire stretch of the Tullamarine Freeway bears the designation M2 (previously Metro Route 43 from 1989 to early 2018).

Route

The Tullamarine Freeway starts just outside Melbourne Airport, where it intersects with Sunbury Road, and runs southeast as a six-lane dual-carriageway freeway through Gladstone Park, eventually meeting with the Western Ring Road in a major interchange. Heading further south as eight lanes, it skirts the western and southern boundaries of Essendon Airport through Airport West, where it meets the Calder Freeway and widens further to ten lanes. East of the intersection with Bulla Road, it officially becomes CityLink's Western link,

History

The Tullamarine Freeway is one of the oldest freeways in Melbourne. The core of the freeway through Airport West began as a deviation of Lancefield Road from the north-west of Essendon Airport, constructed during the 1945/46 financial year as a new single carriageway along the western and southern boundaries of the airport, east of the existing service road (today Matthews Avenue) and tram-way, totalling , planned to reconnect at Sunbury Road (today Bulla Road) in Essendon North.

Lancefield Road was signed as Metropolitan Route 40 between Essendon North and Tullamarine in 1965, with Metropolitan Route 40 continuing north along Sunbury Road to eventually terminate in Bulla. When the Tullamarine By-pass Road opened in 1968 between Essendon Airport and Tullamarine Airport, Metropolitan Route 40 was re-routed onto the new freeway. It was re-routed again from Bell Street onto the Strathmore By-pass Road section of the freeway, once it and the Bell Street interchange opened in 1970. Once the Tullamarine Freeway southern extension opened in 1970, the entire freeway from Tullamarine to Travancore was signed as Freeway Route 81, sharing concurrency with Metropolitan Route 40 from Tullamarine to Pascoe Vale South, and also another concurrency with National Route 79 from Essendon North to Travancore once the Calder Freeway bypass of Niddrie opened in 1972. Metropolitan Route 40 was re-routed onto Calder Freeway in 1989: Metropolitan Route 43 replaced it from Essendon North to Tullamarine in 1989, while Freeway Route 81 was abolished in the same year. When CityLink opened in 1999, Metropolitan Route 43 was extended along the entire freeway, including the Western link, to its end in Port Melbourne. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, the vestige of National Route 79 was finally abolished in 2013 (Calder Freeway had already converted to M79 in 1997), and conversion of Metropolitan Route 43 to route M2 began, finally completed in 2018. The concurrency with Metropolitan Route 40 was abolished in 2020, when it was re-aligned to terminate at Bell Street interchange.

The freeway is used by SkyBus services to Melbourne Airport, and in 2002 the Victorian government contributed $3 million to a $10 million plan to expand and improve these services, after a feasibility study into an airport rail link found the number of passengers using a train would not make the scheme economically viable.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared Tullamarine Freeway (Freeway #1810) from Melbourne-Lancefield Road (today Sunbury Road) at Melbourne Airport to Mount Alexander Road (sign-posted as Bulla Road) in Strathmore, south of Essendon Airport.

Upgrades to the interchange with Calder Freeway were announced in January 2005, which underwent dramatic reconstruction to alleviate congestion. Entry and exit ramps between both freeways were decommissioned and replaced, an additional two lanes inbound were added, with dedicated Bulla Road-Calder Freeway spurs to eliminate weaving, notorious for many accidents in the area; the new inbound lanes towards the city were completed in October 2006 (ten months early), and new outbound lanes towards Melbourne airport were completed in February 2007 (five months early). Another project completed later that year was a new bridge and northern entrance to the Essendon Airport through the interchange of Melrose Drive, to provide easy access for the people living in the northern suburbs to access the Essendon Airport district. Both projects were planned, designed and constructed under an alliance agreement between VicRoads, Baulderstone Hornibrook and Parsons Brinckerhoff.

  • 1959/60 – Lancefield Road deviation, of new dual-carriageway road constructed along the southern boundary of Essendon Aerodrome, connecting the existing Lancefield Road deviation from Treadwell Road to Sunbury Road (today Bulla Road), Essendon North
  • 1963/64 – Lancefield Road duplication, from Treadwell Road to north of Vaughan Street, incorporating a junction with a future Calder Freeway
  • 1965/66 – Lancefield Road duplication, from Hawker Street to Parer Road.
  • 1965/66 – Tullamarine By-pass Road, of 4-lane dual-carriageway road completed from Mickleham Road to the "Tullamarine Jetport Terminal area"; at this stage, the airport interchange, bridges and access roads were still under construction.
  • 1967/68 – Strathmore By-pass Road, of 4-lane dual-carriageway road from Lancefield Road at Bulla Road linking directly to a 2-level bridged interchange at Bell Street, commenced construction.
  • 1974 – Tullamarine Freeway, responsibility for southern extension (from Bell Street interchange to Flemington Bridge) constructed by the MMBW transferred to Country Roads Board, 1 July 1974.
  • 1979 – Lancefield Road, at-grade intersections eliminated, English Street interchange opened and last remaining 1.6 km upgraded to freeway standard, opened 18 December 1979, by Minister for Transport, the Hon Rob Maclellan MLA, at a cost of $7.8 million.
  • 2006 – Tullamarine-Calder Interchange, re-construction of inbound lanes open October 2006.
  • Lane use management signs to manage which lanes are open
  • Variable speed limit signs above all lanes
  • Ramp signalling – stop and go traffic lights to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion as traffic enters the freeway from on-ramps
  • CCTV cameras – to monitor for incidents, help response times and minimise disruptions
  • Travel time information signs so people can plan their journey
  • Electronic message signs – to notify road users of planned changes or disruptions
  • Automatic incident detection system – to alert Road Managers incidents in real time
  • 2 Dedicated Lanes Inbound to Bell Street from the Tullamarine Freeway and Calder Freeway
  • New Bell Street to Pascoe Vale Road
  • Improvements To Flemington Road/ Mount Alexander Road Freeway Interchange
  • Additional Outbound Lane Between Moreland and Ormond Road
  • Ramp Widening Between Bolte Bridge and West Gate Freeway
  • One Additional Inbound Lane between Montague Street and Ingles Street
  • One Additional Inbound Lane between Montague Street and Power Street

Stage 2 (Melbourne Airport to Bulla Road)

  • A new structure with dedicated lanes from the Tullamarine Freeway and Mickleham Road to the M80 Ring Road inbound to ease congestion and reduce traffic weaving
  • An extra lane entering the Tullamarine Freeway city bound from Mickleham Road
  • Reconstruction and widening of the English Street overpass and all ramps to increase capacity into and out of Essendon Fields
  • Ramp signals on the city bound entry from Kings Road in Taylors Lakes to the Tulla Calder interchange to regulate the flow of traffic getting onto the Tullamarine Freeway from the Calder Freeway

Extra Lanes

Part of The Upgrade is adding more lanes between Melbourne Airport and the West Gate Freeway. Between The Citylink (Western Link) and The West Gate Freeway one additional lane in each direction will be added consuming the emergency lanes as well as lower the speed limit from 100 km/h down to 80 km/h. New Emergency Stopping Bays Similar to the Monash Freeway's Emergency Stopping Bays will be provided where Possible.

Exits and interchanges