Princes Highway West - Winchelsea to Colac

Overview

We’ve widened this key arterial route from two to four lanes, making the 35km journey quicker and safer for up to 13,000 drivers every day.

The Princes Highway is a significant corridor for many industries, including agriculture, dairy, logging and smelter products, connecting them to Geelong, Colac, Warrnambool, Portland and South Australia. Thousands of truck drivers use this route each day.

More lanes on the highway means more efficient and predictable journeys. Most importantly, it means a safer trip for drivers.

Project features

The new highway has:

• new intersections
• two new bridges over the Geelong-Warrnambool train line – one of which removed a dangerous level crossing
• a new bridge over Barongarook Creek in Colac
• more than 120 kilometres of new safety barriers.

In 2015, we started adding extra lanes on the Princes Highway between Winchelsea and Colac. Sections were opened as they were completed.

We separated the upgrade into four stages:

• Deans Marsh Road, Winchelsea to Armytage
• Armytage to Warncoort
• Warncoort to Colac East
• Colac East and Colac (including Barongarook Creek)

Environment

Between Winchelsea and Colac, we've planted over 50,000 plants and trees.

We’ve planted a mixture of indigenous and native trees, grasses and bushes along the highway. We’ve also completed landscaping near Barongarook Creek.

This has helped enhance the entrance to Colac and provides an important habitat for animals in the area.

We’ve also worked with the community to reuse vegetation we needed to remove. As part of the project, we provided the Colac Woodcrafters Guild with wood for furniture, toys and instruments. We mulched some of the other vegetation for garden beds and reused for landscaping on the project.

Giving the Growling Grass Frog a helping hand

The Growling Grass Frog is one of Australia’s largest frogs. It is also listed as a threatened species under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999).

Our studies identified there are Growling Grass Frog habitats in the area between Winchelsea and Colac. The species is only found in small, isolated populations across south-eastern Australia.  We’ve installed seven new habitats and constructed our culverts to allow light to enter between the roadways, which will encourage the frog to move between the habitat ponds.

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Reports

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) provides a legal framework to protect and manage nationally and internationally important flora, fauna, ecological communities and heritage places. We are committed to minimising our impact on the environment and heritage places. We are required to report annually on our compliance with conditions set out by the Australian Government.

View the:

• 2012/6568 Princes Highway West Duplication Project EPBC Compliance Assessment Report No. 4 2020 (PDF, 329.7 KB)
• 2012/6568 Princes Highway West Duplication Project EPBC Compliance Assessment Report No. 4 2020 (accessible version) (DOCX, 407.8 KB)
• 2012/6568 Princes Highway West Duplication Project EPBC Compliance Assessment Report No. 3 2019 (PDF, 553.6 KB)
• 2012/6568 Princes Highway West Duplication Project EPBC Compliance Assessment Report No. 3 2019 (accessible version) (DOCX, 402.6 KB)