| Eastern Freeway | |
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Formerly  Proposed  to replace  |
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| General direction | West-East |
| From | Alexandra Parade / Hoddle Street, Collingwood, Melbourne |
| Major suburbs | Bulleen, Doncaster, Box Hill North |
| To | EastLink / Springvale Road, Donvale, Melbourne |
| Established | 1970s |
| Major Junctions |  Chandler Highway Burke Road Limited Access  Bulleen Road / Thompsons Road Doncaster RoadElgar Road Limited Access  Tram Road Limited Access Middleborough Road Blackburn Road Limited Access |
The Eastern Freeway is one of Melbourne's most important freeways in terms of commuting to the city, connecting Alexandra Parade and Hoddle St in the inner suburbs, with Springvale Road in Melbourne's east. It is three to five lanes in each direction, including an inbound "transit lane" reserved for vehicles with two or more occupants during peak hour.
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History
Originally designated F-19 during its construction in the early 1970s, it was supposed to be linked to the then-new Tullamarine Freeway. Protests from inner Melbourne suburbs residents led it be terminated at Hoddle St. Stage 1 finshed at Bulleen Road, it opened during December 1977. Stage 2 to Doncaster Road opened on 3 June 1982, and stage 3 in December 1997 to Springvale Road, Nunawading. Its eventual designation was . It is designed to take traffic off Maroondah Highway. In 2008 it will connect with the new EastLink arterial, a toll road which will go to Ringwood and join the Monash and Frankston Freeways. The Eastern Freeway was designed with the idea of constructing a heavy-rail track down its median to Bulleen Road, and engineering provisions for this had been made, examples include the lack of support pylons for bridges crossing the freeway and the generous space afforded by the median strip. Land was reserved to build the railway line to East Doncaster, but the plan fell out of favour in the 1980s and the land was sold. In recent years, amidst growing congestion problems in Melbourne, the idea has been revived and public pressure has been mounting for the project to be restarted. [1] When EastLink is completed in 2008, the route shield for the Eastern Fwy will most likely be changed to 
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Route
The Eastern Freeway starts at its junction with Hoddle Street, as an eastern continuation of Alexandra Parade (referred to in Vicroads documents as the Eastern Highway), with five lanes eastbound and two lanes westbound. Three more lanes (that provide an exit to Hoddle Street) join the freeway after it leaves the junction. The freeway narrows to four lanes in each direction near Chandler Highway and Yarra Bend. The freeway narrows to three lanes just before Bulleen Road, and features a concrete barrier rather than the grassy median that was designed to carry a railway (and may do so in the near or far future). There is a short four lane section between Tram and Blackburn Roads, then three lanes to the end at Springvale Road. The freeway is unique in that it does not connect to any other freeway (EastLink will end this), despite its heavy traffic, which is mainly cars driven by commuters to work.
Extension Plans
There has been widespread interest in building a tunnel linking Hoddle St to CityLink and the Western Ring road. The Eastern Freeway does not connect to any freeways in the city and traffic from the Eastern is released along Alexandra Pde or at Hoddle St. Particularly of concern, there will be a major traffic bottleneck at the Western end of the Eastern Freeway once the EastLink opens, as well as when the (future plans of opening the) Healesville and Metropolitan Ring Road extension to The Eastern Freeway occurs. The idea has been mooted since the Kennett Government raised the idea; however, the Kennett Government lost the 1999 election to Steve Bracks' Labor Party, and the Labor Government showed little sign of interest building the link. On 1st March 2007, the Labor Government announced a study linking the major feeways which will be headed by former British Airways Chief and International Transport Expert Sir Rod Eddington. The tunnel to CityLink has been rejected since only 15% of traffic would travel along both freeways.
Speed enforcement
The entire freeway has an 100 km/h speed limit. Victoria Police regularly patrol the full length of the freeway, strictly enforcing its speed limit. They mainly park in the centre median in the western sections of the freeway, or the sides.
Interchanges
List of interchanges
At its entrance at Hoddle St, exiting traffic causes congestion in the inner suburbs. It is currently designated 
, and forms the border between a number of suburbs. Interchanges are
- Springvale Road
, Donvale / Nunawading (Start of freeway) - Blackburn Road
, Doncaster East / Blackburn North: citybound onramps only - Middleborough Road
, Box Hill North / Blackburn North: bi-directional - Tram Road / Station Street
, Doncaster / Box Hill North: eastbound onramps only - Elgar Road, Doncaster / Mont Albert North: citybound onramps only
- Doncaster Road
, Doncaster: bi-directional - Bulleen Road
/ Thompsons Road 
, Balwyn North/ Bulleen: bi-directional - Burke Road
, Kew East: citybound onramps only - Chandler Highway
, Kew: bi-directional - Hoddle Street
, Collingwood: bi-directional
The freeway then flows into Alexandra Parade (Eastern Highway) .
Freeway Plan
To have a closer look at the plan, please click the image 
