Draft:Bell Street

Bell Street is an arterial road in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. The road begins at CityLink in Pascoe Vale South, traversing the suburbs of Coburg and Preston, acting as the border between Heidelberg West/Heights and Bellfield, before turning into Banksia Street, which is the border between Eaglemont and Heidelberg. The section linking Bell Street and Banksia Street is known as the Bell-Banksia Link, to distinguish it from the former alignment of Bell St in Heidelberg Heights, which is a shopping district. The route is a straight line in an easterly direction until Darebin Creek, then heading slightly southwards in a curve towards Heidelberg. The road is 4-6 lanes, carrying heavy traffic.

Under the VicRoads Register of Public Roads, Bell Street is part of the State (Bell/Springvale) Highway, allowing management of the road to be under VicRoads' overall management and development. The State (Bell/Springvale) Highway is split into two sections. One contains the entirety of Bell Street, Bell-Banksia Link, Banksia Street, and a small portion of Manningham Road up to the intersection with Bulleen Road, and the other contains Springvale Road from the Eastlink/Eastern Freeway interchange to the Mornington Peninsula Freeway interchange.

History


The Country Roads Board (later VicRoads) declared Bell Street a Main Road in August 1947, heading west from Main Heidelberg-Eltham Road (today Rosanna Road) along Burgundy and then Bell Streets in Heidelberg through Preston and Coburg to Moonee Ponds Creek at Pascoe Vale South. This was extended further west via a new bridge over Moonee Ponds Creek to connect directly to the Tullamarine Freeway extension when it opened in 1970 (plans to do so had existed since 1950 ). Work on the direct link between Bell and Banksia Streets (the "Bell-Banksia Link") in western Heidelberg, built to relieve traffic congestion and improve safety around the Burgundy Street shopping precinct, started in December 1988 and was completed on 1 July 1992, at a total cost of $40 million.

Bell Street was connected to the newly created CityLink in 1999. As part of the CityLink–Tulla Widening project which completed in 2018, a dedicated lane from the Tullamarine Freeway to Bell Street was created to reduce weaving. Controversy arose due to the proximity of Strathmore Secondary College to the new ramp at Bell Street.

Level crossings
Bell Street formerly had two level crossings, one at Coburg station on the Upfield line, and one at Bell station on the Mernda line. As part of the Level Crossing Removal Project, both stations were rebuilt as overpasses, with Coburg complete in 2020 and Bell complete in 2022