Streamlining Hoddle Street

Overview

The Hoddle Street and Punt Road corridor is a critical north-south link to the east of the city. With 330,000 people travelling along and across it every day, it is Melbourne’s busiest arterial road.

The Streamlining Hoddle Street project has upgraded key intersections along this busy corridor, improving traffic flow and making your journey more reliable.

The project was delivered in two stages and was completed in September 2019.

Eastern Freeway and Johnston Street

At the Johnston Street and Hoddle Street intersection, we:

• added two new p-turn intersections on Hoddle Street along with new pedestrian crossing points
• upgraded cycling paths at Truro Street
• built wider footpaths and created shorter crossing distances on Hoddle Street
• built a new open space bus stop precinct at the north-west corner of the intersection
• added new and extended clearways for the Doncaster Area Rapid Transit (DART) and bus Route 246 services from the Eastern Freeway to the Yarra River.

At the Eastern Freeway and Hoddle Street intersection, we:

• added a third traffic lane onto the Eastern Freeway heading east
• added a dedicated bus lane off the Eastern Freeway, so the DART service will only have to stop for pedestrians
• added sections of dedicated bus lanes for the DART and bus Route 246 services from the Eastern Freeway to Victoria Parade
• built new shared walking and cycling paths on both sides of Hoddle Street.

Swan Street, Olympic Boulevard and Brunton Avenue

In March 2019, we delivered Victoria’s first Continuous Flow Intersection (CFI) at the intersection of Punt with Swan Street and Olympic Boulevard.

The CFI provides more go time, shorter queues and more reliable travel times on Punt Road and Hoddle Street. It includes:

• a right turn lane to turn right from Punt Road to Olympic Boulevard
• a p-turn to turn right from Swan Street to Punt Road
• a p-turn to turn right from Punt Road to Swan Street.

We also removed the right turn from Olympic Boulevard to Punt Road.

As part of the project, we improved walking access at Brunton Avenue and Punt Road and built a new twin-platform tram stop on Swan Street.

These changes have provided more ‘go time’ at green lights, improved traffic flow and travel times on Hoddle Street and Punt Road and made it safer and easier access to public transport.

Buses, trains and trams

As part of this project, we’ve made it safer and easier to access public transport. We’ve:

• permanently removed the eastbound tram Stop 7E on Olympic Boulevard
• permanently removed the westbound tram Stop 7D on Swan Street
• upgraded both Punt Road bus stops
• built a new, twin-platform tram stop for both directions at the corner of Punt Road and Swan Street
• installed new pedestrian lights
• widened and separated walking and cycling paths all around the area.

To improve traffic flow, we also added and extended clearway times along Punt Road and Hoddle Street.