The Tullamarine Freeway is the main road link between Melbourne Airport and the rest of the city, with the first 7.2 kilometres (4.5 mile) stage opened to traffic in 1968 as the ‘Tullamarine Freeway By-pass Road’.
Country Roads Board annual report 1968-69
Early years
A bridge taking inbound traffic from the airport over outbound traffic towards Sunbury.
Country Roads Board annual report 1968-69
A full diamond interchange was provided at Mickleham Road.
Country Roads Board annual report 1968-69
And a bridge taking Carrick Drive over the freeway.
Country Roads Board annual report 1968-69
Nothing changes
The years that followed saw a period of massive growth at Melbourne Airport, and the construction of CityLink at the Melbourne end.
Google Earth 2002
But the outer end of the Tullamarine Freeway stayed the same.
The sign at Mickleham Road was metricated.
But nothing new at Carrick Drive.
At least until 2013, when the Western Ring Road interchange was expanded as part of the M80 Ring Road upgrade project, and an extra set of lanes was punched beneath the Carrick Drive Overpass.
Then the CityLink Tulla Widening project
The car parks at Melbourne Airport kept on growing.
Google Earth 2018
So in 2015 the Victorian Government said yes to an unsolicited proposal from Transurban for the ‘CityLink Tulla Widening’ project – a $1.3 billion package of works that would add extra lanes to the freeway between the CBD and the airport.
A bus-only bridge was constructed to allow buses to skip the queue exiting the airport.
Google Street View 2019
Collector/distributor lanes were constructed at Mickleham Road to separate traffic headed for the Ring Road from that entering the freeway.
Google Street View 2019
And an extra lane was added in each direction, taking the freeway from two to three through lanes at Carrick Drive.
Google Street View 2019
I wonder how long until the next road ‘upgrade’ will be needed?
Whats funny is if you stay on the freeway past the airport, its like going back in time 50 years to a time when freeways were covered in potholes. All freeway upgrades occurred only to the airport, ignoring past the airport completely.
I was always surprised by how original the Tullamarine Freeway was beyond the Ring Road, at least until the recent upgrades.
The Outer Ring Road will eventually see that change with part of Sunbury Road converted to freeway past the airport with the freeway alignment bypassing Bulla to the ring road with a directional T interchange – known here as ‘Melbourne Airport Link’
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/planning-and-projects/melbourne-road-projects/bulla-bypass-melbourne-airport-link-to-omr
“I wonder how long until the next road ‘upgrade’ will be needed?”
And this is the folly of building freeways and major roads without any or inadequate public transport. You think governments of any persuasion would have realised this by now. Or not.
Sounds like the decades worth of ‘upgrades’ to the Monash Freeway.
https://wongm.com/2019/05/south-eastern-freeway-melbourne-toorak-road-dead-end/
When Tullamarine Airport opened our grandmother took me and my brother to watch Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines at a cinema which used to be in the building just before the then Ansett terminal. I think it was called the Astro.
That’s be the Astrojet Theatre:
https://astrojet-theatre-blog.tumblr.com/
Arun Chandu published a paper on the early years of Melbourne Airport here:
https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2016-06/apo-nid212941.pdf
I like to think it was called the Astro because they couldn’t spell Astor.
Marcus,
nice pic of an FB Holden on the Tulla!! Also, I have examined the now disused bridge that once took southbound traffic from Tullamarine to the Calder Freeway. Even drove my car over it! It is still easy to access from the Calder Fwy or the Tulla fwy on ramp from Bulla Rd.
It’s a fun little leftover there.
I’ve got more examples of Melbourne ‘ghost ramps’ here:
https://wongm.com/2014/02/melbourne-freeway-ghost-ramps/
Marcus,
we both missed the old Rutherford Rd off ramp, now cut off and forlorn. It is still possible to see the remains of the tarmacadam road surface trailing off to nowhere.
Old fashioned thinking perhaps but what about instead of more road expansion we build a train line to the airport? Yes disingenuous, I know.
Gladstone Park was also still under construction, so for quite a while Carrick Drive bridge led straight to a dead end, with hardly enough room to park in hope of staying undisturbed for a bit.
Another example of the accelerating population growth putting strain on infrastructure – this time out and around the airport. When it was built it was more or less ‘out of the way’ to avoid aircraft noise issues and allow curfew free operation with limited development around Tullamarine and Gladstone Park. When the freeway was built the Essendon drive in theatre stood out on its own on Melrose Drive when it was Lancefield Road, on the corner of Carrick Drive. The only hint to its existence today are the names ‘Paramount Court’, ‘Columbia Close’ and ‘Forum Place’
Aside from airport access, this way out was another cross-country rat-run to access the Hume Highway pre M80 Ring Road days avoiding congested Sydney Road. From the freeway you’d travel north along Mickleham Road all the way out to Donnybrook Road where you’d turn right and access the Hume Highway at the Kalkallo Roadhouse. Apart from Gladstone Park you’d be on two lane roads out in the country with the old Mickleham Primary School bluestone building in the middle of nowhere. Today that same run is increasingly urbanised and on busy divided roads.
Residents of Keilor are really kicking up a stink about the new 3rd runway, despite it having been planned for decades.
https://krra.org.au/
The Hume City Council meeting of 7 Sept 2020 resolved “that Council writes to the Department of Transport regarding the bridge overpass on Carrick Drive Gladstone Park enroute to Tullamarine to investigate whether a footpath can be provided on the bridge.” It’s a shocking bridge for walking and riding over.
Good luck if you’ve got a pram and find someone walking the other way!
In hindsight it would’ve been great if the railway was run in the median of the freeway from Strathmore on the Broadmeadows line to the airport.
The original plans for the rail link was to branch off at Glenroy.
https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/publications/research-papers/download/36-research-papers/13828-melbourne-airport-rail-link
It is likely that the Tullamarine Freeway at Melbourne Airport will be expanded if the Outer Ring Road gets built. It remains to be seen if this extension will be known as the Tullamarine Freeway or a tollway known as the Airport Link
VicRoads called it the ‘Melbourne Airport Link’ here.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200318000503/https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/planning-and-projects/melbourne-road-projects/bulla-bypass-melbourne-airport-link-to-omr