Plenty Road

Last updated

Plenty Road

Victoria
Australia Victoria metropolitan Melbourne location map.svg
Red pog.svg
North end
Red pog.svg
South end
Coordinates
General information
TypeRoad
Length30.4 km (19 mi) [1]
Route number(s)
  • Australian state route 27.svg Metro Route 27 (1965–present)
    (Preston–Bundoora)
  • AUS Alphanumeric Route A51.svg A51 (2021–present)
    (Bundoora–Mernda)
  • AUS Alphanumeric Route C727.svg C727 (1998–present)
    (Mernda–Whittlesea)
Former
route number
  • Australian state route 27.svg Metro Route 27 (1965–2021)
    (Bundoora–South Morang)
  • Australian state route 27.svg Metro Route 27 (1989–1998)
    (South Morang–Whittlesea)
  • AUS Alphanumeric Route C727.svg C727 (1998–2021)
    (South Morang–Mernda)
Major junctions
North endAUS Alphanumeric Route C725.svgMacmeikan Street
Whittlesea, Victoria
 
South endAustralian state route 29.svgHigh Street
Preston, Melbourne
Location(s)
Major suburbs Reservoir, Bundoora, Mill Park, South Morang, Mernda

Plenty Road is a major urban arterial road in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Plenty Road begins at the intersection of High Street and Dundas Street in Preston, travelling through the north eastern suburbs of Reservoir, Bundoora, Mill Park, South Morang and Mernda and terminating in the township of Whittlesea, just outside the urban area of Melbourne.

Contents

The road is notorious amongst Melburnians as one of the most congested and dangerous roads in Melbourne, with the section in Bundoora near the M80 Ring Road carrying upwards of 60,000 vehicles per day. [2] The AAMI Crash Index of 2020 listed it as the worst road in Australia. [3] Numerous upgrades have occurred on the road over the years to improve the road, with the most recent upgrades between 2019 and 2021 upgrading a significant portion of the road and reducing a number of bottlenecks. [4]

Route

Plenty Road begins at the intersection of High Street and Dundas Street in Preston. Here it is a typical 4 lane single-carriageway inner suburban road, carrying the Route 86 tram line on the roadway. At the Albert Street intersection in Reservoir, it changes into a 6 lane divided road with speed limits varying between 60 km/h and 70 km/h, carrying the tram route within the median strip. Just north of the Metropolitan Ring Road interchange the tram route ends at Bundoora RMIT, which also provides access to the nearby Uni Hill Shopping Centre. North of here the road continues as a 6 lane divided road (as of the 2019 upgrade) with a speed limit of 80 km/h until just before Mernda, where the road reduces to 4 lanes. North of the Bridge Inn Road intersection in Mernda, the road again reduces to a 2 lane single carriageway with a speed limit of 100 km/h until it ends in the township of Whittlesea.

History

Plenty Road was signed as Metropolitan Route 27 between Preston and South Morang in 1965, then extended north all the way to Whittlesea along the entire route in 1989. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in 1998, this was truncated back to the Gorge Road intersection in South Morang, with the road north of here replaced with the designation C727. In between 2019 and 2021, on the newly upgraded sections between McKimmies Road in Bundoora and Bridge Inn Road in Mernda, the road has been reassigned A51. [5]

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 [6] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Plenty Valley Highway (Arterial #6140), beginning at the Albert Street and Boldrewood Parade intersection at Reservoir and ending at Metropolitan Ring Road in Bundoora, [7] while re-declaring the remnants between Reservoir and Bell Street in Preston as Whittlesea Road (Arterial #5813), [8] and between Bundoora and the intersection of Wallan Road and Macmeikan Street in Whittlesea as Main Whittlesea Road (Arterial #5814); [9] the section of Plenty Road between Bell and High Streets in Preston remains undeclared. Despite the declared names, the road is still presently known (and signposted) as Plenty Road along its entire length.

Major works

With the suburban growth since the late 1990s in the outer suburbs of Mill Park, South Morang and more recently Mernda, the road has become severely congested in recent years, with Plenty Road being one of the only major arterial roads in the area to a number of new estates. In the years since, the road has been progressively widened to 2 or 3 lanes each way, with the most recent upgrades in 2021 making the road a divided road all the way to Bridge Inn Road, Mernda. The Plenty Road upgrade between 2018 and 2021 upgraded a number of intersections and was completed in August 2021. [4]

Major intersections

LGALocationkmmiDestinationsNotes
Whittlesea Whittlesea AUS Alphanumeric Route C725.svg Macmeikan Street (C725 north)Northern terminus of Plenty Road
AUS Alphanumeric Route C727.svg Wallan Road (C727 west)Route C727 continues west along Wallan Road eventually to Wallan
Yan Yean AUS Alphanumeric Route C723.svg Donnybrook Road (C723)
Mernda Australian state route 57.svg Bridge Inn Road (Metro Route 57 east)Northern terminus of A51, southern terminus of C727
South Morang Australian state route 58.svg McDonalds Road (Metro Route 58)
Mill Park Childs Road – Lalor
Whittlesea–Banyule boundary Bundoora AUS Alphanumeric Route M80.svg Metropolitan Ring Road (M80) – Thomastown, Greensborough Southern terminus of A51, northern terminus of Metro Route 27
Banyule Australian state route 48.svg Settlement Road (Metro Route 48 west)Concurrency with Metro Route 48
Darebin–Banyule boundaryAustralian state route 48.svg Grimshaw Street (Metro Route 48 east)
Darebin Kingsbury–Bundoora boundaryKingsbury Drive
Reservoir Australian state route 21.svg Boldrewood Parade (Metro Route 21 north)
Australian state route 21.svg Albert Street (Metro Route 21 south)
Preston Murray Road
Australian state route 40.svg Bell Street (Metro Route 40)  – Coburg, Heidelberg
Australian state route 29.svg High Street (Metro Route 29 south)Southern terminus of Plenty Road and Metro Route 27
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

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Yan Yean Road is a major road in the outer north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Yan Yean Road begins at the intersection with Diamond Creek Road and Aqueduct Road in Diamond Creek, extending northward through the suburbs of Plenty, Yarrambat and Doreen before terminating in Yan Yean near the Yan Yean Reservoir. The road, previously a rural road until development in the 2000s, is now an important arterial link between the traditional north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne and new estates in Doreen and Mernda.

References

  1. ↑ Google (4 November 2021). "Plenty Road" (Map). Google Maps . Google. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  2. ↑ "Traffic Volumes for Freeways and Arterial Roads".
  3. ↑ "AAMI Crash Index identifies Australia's worst roads: Melbourne tops the list".
  4. 1 2 "Plenty Road Upgrade".
  5. ↑ "Map of Declared Roads".
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 956. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  8. ↑ VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 777. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  9. ↑ VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 778. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
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