Premier of the State of Victoria Denis Napthine announced the new multi-year strategy for the urban development of Melbourne, known as “Plan Melbourne”. The broad-based plan proposes a redesigning of the city with structural interventions of various types. Its two-fold purpose is to make Melbourne more economically efficient and better connected with the outside, so as to better meet the needs of a growing population, especially in the more outlying areas.
On the one hand, an economic triangle is envisaged that would have its core in the Central Business District (mainly a district of office and institutional buildings that would be enlarged and modernised), with its main points of intersection being the harbor, airport and motorway/railway networks. And on the other, a series of urban reuse projects aimed at ensuring a wide range of services to all the cities suburbs, at the same time extending and improving public transport systems.
What stands out are several large-scale infrastructure projects that include: the “East-West Link connecting motorway and ring-road; completion of the ring-road itself with North-East Link; a second external ring-road; railway connections with the Melbourne and Avalon airports and with the Rowville and Doncastle areas; a third airport to the southeast; refurbishing of the trolley line; and a new water supply network. The prospects are long-term but initial works may begin within the next five years: among these the building of a new metro network. Public consultations are to conclude on 6 December. Further information can be had at http://www.planmelbourne.vic.gov.au/
