The Allan Labor Government has reached its latest milestone on North East Link – with vehicles now able to travel on the new Bulleen Road lanes for the first time – a day earlier than scheduled.

A new section of Bulleen Road has been built creating space for the new tunnel entrance and Yarra Link green bridge and allowing traffic to keep moving as tunnelling is set to get underway in the new year.

Drivers can travel on the new 700-metre section of road that includes a safer signalised intersection at Bulleen Park Access Road.

A crew of more than 200 people worked to build the new lanes between Thompsons Road and Trinity Grammar, re-using 60,000 tonnes of soil from North East Link’s Watsonia site and more than 8,000 tonnes of asphalt for the northbound and southbound lanes.

The work was carefully planned to minimise disruptions to the community and maintain access to the Veneto Club, local schools and shops, homes, and sporting grounds.

Construction teams will continue to work over summer to prepare for tunnelling – which will include assembling the massive tunnel boring machines (TBMs), building the TBM launch and retrieval boxes, and setting up the temporary traffic staging for the Manningham Road interchange.

Once complete in 2028, the North East Link will slash travel times by up to 35 minutes and take 15,000 trucks a day off local roads in the north east.