Airport Drive (Melbourne)
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=October 2011}}
{{Infobox Australian road
| type = highway
| urban = yes
| state = vic
| road_name = Airport Drive
| image =
| caption =
| length = 5.7
| est = 1997–2015
| coordinates_a = {{coord|-37.6755|144.8522|type:landmark_region:AU-VIC|display=inline}}
| coordinates_b = {{coord|-37.7163|144.8769|type:landmark_region:AU-VIC|display=inline}}
| pushpin_label_position_a = top
| pushpin_label_position_b = bottom
| alternative_location_map=Australia Victoria metropolitan Melbourne
| route =
| direction_a = North
| direction_b = South
| end_a = Grants Road
{{small|Melbourne Airport}}
| end_b = Westfield Drive
{{small|Tullamarine, Melbourne}}
| exits = {{plainlist|
- {{AUshield|VIC|M2}} Tullamarine Freeway
- {{AUshield|S|39}} Sharps Road
- {{AUshield|VIC|M80}} Western Ring Road}}
| through = {{VICcity|Melbourne Airport|Tullamarine}}
}}
Airport Drive is a 5.7 kilometre highway in Melbourne, Australia, linking Centre Road at Melbourne Airport with the M80 Ring Road at Airport West. This road is an important thoroughfare for the adjacent Melbourne Airport Business Park along South Centre Road, and acts as an alternative access road to Tullamarine Freeway.
Route
Airport Drive starts at the intersection of Grants and Centre Road at Melbourne Airport, just south of Terminal 4, running east as a four-lane, dual-carriageway road past the Long Term Parking lot, turning south-east past more car parks and Airport service companies, before turning south along a wide alignment (to incorporate a future railway link to the airport) to the intersection with Sharps Road, then through the Tullamarine Park industrial area to terminate at the Western Ring Road; Westfield Drive continues past the interchange over the Albion–Jacana railway line to link to the Westfield Airport West shopping centre just under a kilometre away.
History
Airport Drive originally opened to traffic between Sharps Road and the Western Ring Road in May 1997.
The passing of the Road Management Act 2004{{cite web |author=State Government of Victoria |title=Road Management Act 2004 |url=https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-08/04-12aa062%20authorised.pdf |publisher=Government of Victoria |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018233332/https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-08/04-12aa062%20authorised.pdf |archivedate=18 October 2021 |url-status=live |access-date=19 October 2021 }} granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads declared Airport Connection Road (Freeway #1280) from Western Ring Road in Tullamarine to Sharps Road in Tullamarine;{{cite web |author=VicRoads |title=VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015 |url=https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/-/media/files/documents/utilities/about-vr/acts-and-regulations/register-of-public-roads---part-a-v-2015.ashx?la=en&hash=116BE6FB86F506FF0B5BAFBEA45FCD6C |format=PDF |publisher=Government of Victoria |page=19 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501042521/https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/-/media/files/documents/utilities/about-vr/acts-and-regulations/register-of-public-roads---part-a-v-2015.ashx?la=en&hash=116BE6FB86F506FF0B5BAFBEA45FCD6C |archivedate=1 May 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=19 October 2021 }} the declaration formally makes this section a freeway; signposts along this section have also kept their original name.
In July 2013, construction began on an extension from Sharps Road to the intersection of Melrose Drive and Mercer Drive, Melbourne Airport. Airport Drive Extension opened to traffic on 28 June 2015, at a cost of $100 million, with the existing Melrose Drive roadway between Mercer Drive and Centre Road subsumed into Airport Drive.{{cite news |url=https://vgls.sdp.sirsidynix.net.au/client/search/asset/1291427 |title=VicRoads Annual Report 2014-15 |newspaper=VicRoads |location=Melbourne |date=3 September 2015 |page=13 |publisher=Victorian Government Library Service}}{{cite news|last1=Choahan|first1=Neelima|title=Melbourne Airport Drive extension opened|url=http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-airport-drive-extension-opened-20150628-ghzokf.html|accessdate=4 June 2017|work=The Age|publisher=Fairfax Media|date=29 June 2015}} As part of the extension project, Link Road was realigned to form a new traffic-light intersection at Airport Drive, with through traffic connecting to Watson Drive and Melrose Drive. The extension is not part of VicRoads' freeway declaration and presently remains undeclared.
Intersections
{{AUSinttop
{{VICint
|LGAC=Hume
|LGAspan=7
|location=Melbourne Airport
|lspan=7
|km=0.0
|uspan=2
|type=trans
|road={{AUshield|+|airport}} Grants Road
|notes=Continues west as Grants Road
}}
{{VICint
|km=none
|road={{AUshield|+|airport}} Centre Road
|notes=Traffic light intersection
}}
{{VICint
|type=incomplete
|km=0.6
|road={{AUshield|+|airport}} Naarm Way, to T4 Transport Hub access road
|notes=No southbound access
}}
{{VICint
|km=0.7
|road={{AUshield|VIC|M2}} Tullamarine Freeway (M2 east){{VICcity|p=on|Docklands|Port Melbourne}}
{{AUshield|+|airport}} Apac Drive (west)
|notes=Traffic light intersection
}}
{{VICint
|type=incomplete
|km=1.3
|road={{AUshield|+|airport}} Francis Briggs Drive (west)
Mercer Drive (east)
|notes=Roundabout; no access to Mercer Drive
}}
{{VICint
|km=2.5
|road={{AUshield|+|airport}} Link Road, to Melrose Drive{{VICcity|p=on|Tullamarine}}
|notes=Traffic light intersection
}}
{{VICint
|type=incomplete
|km=3.0
|road=Sky Road
|notes=Northbound entrance and exit only
}}
{{VICint
|location_special=Melbourne Airport–Tullamarine boundary
|km=4.1
|road={{AUshield|S|39}} Sharps Road (Metro Route 39){{VICcity|p=on|Keilor Park|Gladstone Park|Mickleham}}
|notes=Traffic light intersection
}}
{{VICint
|LGAC=Brimbank
|LGAspan=2
|location=Tullamarine
|lspan=2
|km=5.7
|uspan=2
|road={{AUshield|VIC|M80}} Western Ring Road (M80){{VICcity|p=on|Laverton North|Thomastown}}
|notes=Dogbone interchange
}}
{{VICint
|km=none
|type=trans
|road=Westfield Drive{{VICcity|p=on|Airport West}}
|notes=Continues east as Westfield Drive
}}
{{Jctbtm|col=7|keys=incomplete,trans|conv=off}}
See also
{{portal-inline|Australian Roads}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Road infrastructure in Melbourne}}
Category:Highways and freeways in Melbourne
Category:Transport in the City of Hume
Category:Transport in the City of Moonee Valley
{{melbourne-geo-stub}}
{{Australia-road-stub}}