Major Roads Project Victoria has ticked off another Pakenham Roads Upgrade major milestone for the new Princes Freeway bridge this week with the concrete bridge deck poured.
Bringing in enough concrete to fill approximately 50 concrete trucks, the Pakenham Roads Upgrade has poured the deck for the new Princes Freeway bridge on Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road.
Crews worked in two sections to pour the 850 square metres of concrete to support the new bridge deck – weighing approximately 2000 tonnes.
Following the overnight works in January to crane in the 12 concrete bridge beams – weighing 65 tonnes each – this marks another major point of progress for the bridge that’s set to dramatically ease Pakenham congestion from the Princes Freeway, Racecourse Road and Healesville-Kooweerup Road.
The bridge will be open for traffic in mid-2024.
Over on McGregor Road, the Pakenham Roads Upgrade is working behind barriers to build an additional northbound lane to improve traffic flow between the Princes Freeway and the Webster Way/Henry Road intersection.
These works come directly after the opening of a widened outbound freeway exit ramp to McGregor Road, with an upgraded roundabout to match.
Over on the Healesville-Kooweerup Road Upgrade, crews continue to make great progress towards completion later this year.
Over summer, new asphalt was laid with vehicles now driving on 10km of new road between Southeast Boulevard and Manks Road. Five upgraded intersections have also been reopened in recent months, with Island Road the most recent, opening this week and giving residents and local businesses direct access to the new Healesville-Kooweerup Road.
To complete major works, we’ll be finishing the second new bridge over Deep Creek and opening it to traffic in June, as well as paving the new lanes and the approaches to the roundabouts so that vehicles can be progressively moved over to the new road.
The Level Cross Removal Project works in Pakenham have made great progress as well, with the level crossings at Main Street, McGregor Road and Racecourse Road in Pakenham set to be gone this year. LXRP is also on track to open the new stations at Pakenham and East Pakenham in 2024 as well as six MCGs worth of community open space created for locals to enjoy.
With work on three level crossing removals and new stations at Pakenham and East Pakenham powering ahead, another huge milestone has been achieved on the project, with the first sections of rail track laid in East Pakenham in its new, permanent position.
