{"id":30023,"date":"2024-03-20T12:25:22","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T02:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infrastructuremagazine.com.au\/?p=51653"},"modified":"2024-03-20T12:25:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T02:25:22","slug":"western-freeway-upgrade-nears-completion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=30023","title":{"rendered":"Western Freeway upgrade nears completion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upgrades to Victoria\u2019s Western Freeway are almost complete with final asphalting works underway, providing safer journeys on one of the State\u2019s most important travel routes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than $9.2 million of asphalting works are nearing completion on sections of the freeway between Hopetoun Park to Leigh Creek and Gordon to Myrniong as part of the Victorian Government\u2019s $770 million major road maintenance blitz.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It comes on top of major works at multiple locations including Western Highway at Windermere and Trewalla.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Western Freeway is a key freight route for agricultural industries to get their goods to market, serving as an important connection for commuters to jobs and services in Melbourne, Ballarat, Bacchus Marsh and Melton.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crews will be on-site at multiple locations along the freeway, with reduced speeds and traffic management in place for the safety of road workers and the whole community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The works are scheduled for completion by the end of May 2024, weather permitting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The funding for these works is part of the State Government\u2019s $6.6 billion, ten-year, investment towards road maintenance and renewal works, including flood recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As part of the current state-wide maintenance program, crews are continuing to mow, slash and spray grass and weeds across more than 45,000km of the state\u2019s roadsides, repair or replace thousands of signs, deliver emergency road repairs and respond to emergency call-outs from the community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Victorian Government introduced performance-based road maintenance contracts in 2023, which is providing Victorians with better value for money, less disruptions during works, and higher-quality road maintenance where it is needed most.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victorian Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Melissa Horne, said that the government is supporting one of Victoria\u2019s fastest growing regions by upgrading the Western Freeway \u2013 the West\u2019s busiest freight and travel route.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis upgrade means getting produce to market faster, a smoother ride for workers and a safer journey for families.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Upgrades to Victoria\u2019s Western Freeway are almost complete with final asphalting works underway, providing safer journeys on one of the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[471,1291,163,8204,8203,5,8205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-projects","category-rail-industry-news-australia-new-zealand","category-roads","category-spotlight","category-transport","category-vic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30023"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37934,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30023\/revisions\/37934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}