Mount Alexander Road

Mount Alexander Road (and its northern section as Bulla Road) is a major road in Melbourne's inner northern suburbs, connecting the northern edges of the city district to just south of Essendon Airport. It was named after its original destination: the Gold Fields of Mount Alexander, now known as Castlemaine.

Mount Alexander Road

Bulla Road

Mount Alexander Road in Essendon
Mount Alexander Road is located in Melbourne
Northwest end
Northwest end
Southeast end
Southeast end
Coordinates
General information
TypeRoad
Length6.8 km (4.2 mi)[1]
Route number(s) Metro Route 37 (1970–present)
(Essendon North–Essendon)

Former
route number
  • Metro Route 40 (1965–1970)
    (Essendon North–Essendon)
  • Alt. National Route 79 (1970–1989)
  • National Route 79 (1955–1970)
    (Essendon–Parkville)
Major junctions
Northwest end CityLink
Tullamarine Freeway
Strathmore, Melbourne
 
Southeast end Flemington Road
Parkville, Melbourne
Location(s)
LGA(s)City of Moonee Valley
Major suburbsEssendon, Moonee Ponds, Ascot Vale

Route

The road starts as Bulla Road, outside the entrance to the Essendon Airport retail park, crossing Tullamarine Freeway and CityLink to the elongated roundabout where Keilor and Lincoln Roads meet in Essendon. It changes name to Mount Alexander Road and continues heading south to Moonee Ponds as a wide dual-carriageway with a plantation separating northbound and southbound traffic, until it reaches the intersection with Pascoe Vale and Ascot Vale Roads at Moonee Ponds Junction. It continues south as a four-lane single-carriageway road, sharing tram tracks along the roadway through Ascot Vale, then forming the boundary between Flemington and Travancore, before eventually crossing Moonee Ponds Creek underneath the CityLink sound-tube and arriving at the intersection with the CityLink ramps, Boundary and Flemington Roads in Parkville.

Melbourne tram route 59 runs along the majority of the road, sharing traffic lanes with motor vehicles between Flemington Road and Moonee Ponds Junction, and along reserved tracks between Fletcher Street and Keilor Road in Essendon. Essendon tram depot is also located on the road, in the suburb of Travancore.

History

Mount Alexander Road originally ran north from Flemington Road in Parkville to Pascoe Vale Road at Moonee Ponds Junction. The Country Roads Board (later VicRoads) declared a northern extension to the existing allocation as a Main Road in the 1959/60 financial year,[2] from Moonee Ponds Junction to the intersection with Bendigo Road (today Keilor Road) and Sunbury Road (today Bulla Road) in northern Essendon.[2]

Mount Alexander Road linked Bendigo Road (and the Calder Highway beyond) to central Melbourne, and was signed as National Route 79 between Essendon and Parkville in 1955; once the Tullamarine Freeway extension to Parkville opened in 1970 and National Route 79 was re-routed onto the new freeway, the old route was replaced with Alternative National Route 79, until it was removed in 1989. Bulla Road was allocated Metro Route 37, extended north from Lincoln Road to Tullamarine Freeway, when the Tullamarine Freeway extension opened in 1970, replacing former Metropolitan Route 40.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[3] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared Mount Alexander Road (Arterial #5824) from Flemington Road in Parkville to the ramps of the "Western Link Tollway" (CityLink's Western link) in Strathmore, south of Essendon Airport;[4] this declaration formally includes today's Bulla Road, but signposts along this section have kept its original name.

Major intersections

Mount Alexander Road is entirely contained within the City of Moonee Valley local government area.

Location[1][4]km[1]miDestinationsNotes
Essendon FieldsEssendon NorthStrathmore tripoint0.00.0 Tullamarine Freeway (M2 west)  Tullamarine, Melbourne Airport
CityLink (M2 east)  Docklands, Port Melbourne
Northern terminus of Mount Alexander Road (declared), Bulla Road (sign-posted) and Metro Route 37
Essendon NorthStrathmoreEssendon tripoint0.80.50Woodland Street  Pascoe Vale South
Essendon NorthEssendon border1.20.75Keilor Road (west)  Niddrie
Lincoln Road (Metro Route 37 south)  Footscray, Williamstown
Southern terminus of Bulla Road (sign-posted), Metro Route 37 continues south along Lincoln Road
Northern terminus of Mount Alexander Road (sign-posted)
EssendonMoonee Ponds border2.81.7Buckley Street  Keilor East, Essendon
Moonee Ponds3.72.3Kellaway Avenue  Moonee PondsPascoe Vale Road northbound from Moonee Ponds Junction via Kellaway Avenue
4.02.5Puckle Street  Moonee Ponds
Dean Street  Moonee Ponds
No right turn northbound into Dean Street, no right turn southbound into Puckle Street
Pascoe Vale Road (Metro Route 35 north)  Broadmeadows, Coolaroo
Ascot Vale Road (Metro Route 35 south)  Flemington, Williamstown
No right turn northbound into Pascoe Vale Road, no left turn northbound into Ascot Vale Road
Moonee PondsAscot Vale border4.72.9 Maribyrnong Road (Metro Route 38 west)  Sunshine, Maribyrnong
Ormond Road (Metro Route 38 east)  Brunswick, Northcote
FlemingtonTravancore border6.64.1 CityLink (M2)  Tullamarine, Melbourne AirportNorthbound entrance and southbound exit only
FlemingtonParkville border6.84.2Boundary Road  North Melbourne
Flemington Road (Metro Route 60) – CitySouthern terminus of Mount Alexander Road, Metro Route 60 continues south-east along Flemington Road

See also

icon Australian Roads portal

References

  1. Google (19 October 2021). "Mount Alexander Road" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  2. "Country Roads Board Victoria. Forty-Seventh Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1960". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 21 November 1960. pp. 9–10.
  3. 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.
  4. VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 772. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.