Domain Tunnel
Encyclopedia
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, which carries traffic westbound from the Monash Freeway
Monash Freeway
Monash Freeway is an urban freeway in Victoria, Australia linking Melbourne's CBD to its southeastern suburbs and the Gippsland region. The entire stretch of the Monash Freeway bears the designation...
to the West Gate Freeway
West Gate Freeway
West Gate Freeway is a freeway in Melbourne, Australia, linking Geelong to Melbourne CBD and beyond. It is also a link between Melbourne and the west and linking industrial and residential areas west of the Yarra River with the city and port areas. The iconic West Gate Bridge is a part of the...
, running under the Yarra River
Yarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
and Kings Domain. The tunnel is part of the CityLink
CityLink
CityLink is a system of tolled urban Highways in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company Transurban was awarded the contract to augment two existing freeways and construct two new Toll roads—labelled the Western and Southern Links—directly linking a number of existing freeways to...
Tollway operated by Transurban
Transurban
Transurban is an international toll road developer and manager with interests in Australia and North America. In Australia, Transurban has a stake in five out of Sydney’s nine motorways, and in Melbourne it is the full owner of CityLink, which connects three of the city’s major freeways...
and provides a bypass of the central business district.
History
The tunnel was constructed between 1996 and 1999 by Transfield-Obayashi Joint Venture. It was officially opened to traffic on 16 April 2000 with a temporary 60 km/h speed limit, and was free to use until 26 April.On 23 March 2007 just before 10am, three trucks and four cars collided in the Burnley Tunnel
Burnley Tunnel
The Burnley Tunnel is a tollway tunnel in Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia, which carries traffic eastbound from the West Gate Freeway to the Monash Freeway. It is part of the CityLink Tollway operated by Transurban. Running under the Yarra River and the inner suburbs of Richmond and Burnley, the...
. The crash resulted in multiple explosions and a subsequent fire. This forced the evacuation of motorists from the Burnley Tunnel. The Domain Tunnel was closed and any drivers in the Domain Tunnel at the time drove out normally. Cross passage tunnels between the Domain and Burnley Tunnels were used by evacuees to exit from the Burnley Tunnel into the Domain Tunnel.
In May 2007 a dramatic incident involving a truck and a sedan was caught by a A Current Affair film crew investigating the safety of the tunnel in light of previous events. Authorities are currently investigating if the crew, who were driving vehicles in the tunnel, may have contributed in instigating the crash.
Design
The Domain Tunnel is 1.6km long and comprises 460 metres of cut and cover tunnel at the west end, 680 metres of driven tunnel and 500m of cut and cover which includes a shallow river crossing. The western portal is shared with the longer Burnley TunnelBurnley Tunnel
The Burnley Tunnel is a tollway tunnel in Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia, which carries traffic eastbound from the West Gate Freeway to the Monash Freeway. It is part of the CityLink Tollway operated by Transurban. Running under the Yarra River and the inner suburbs of Richmond and Burnley, the...
that carries traffic in the other direction. Roadheader
Roadheader
A roadheader, also called a boom-type roadheader, road header machine, road header or just header machine, is a piece of excavating equipment consisting of a boom-mounted cutting head, a loading device usually involving a conveyor, and a crawler travelling track to move the entire machine forward...
s were used to dig the bored section of tunnel, while at the eastern end the 170 metre final section of cut and cover was built under the Yarra River
Yarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
, with a cofferdam
Cofferdam
A cofferdam is a temporary enclosure built within, or in pairs across, a body of water and constructed to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out, creating a dry work environment for the major work to proceed...
being moved as construction continued, permitting the river to keep flowing. The tunnel carries three 3.5 metre wide traffic lanes with 0.5 metre wide shoulders, and has two cross tunnels to the Domain Tunnel. The road level is a maximum depth of 40 metres, and has a gradient
Gradient
In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar field is a vector field that points in the direction of the greatest rate of increase of the scalar field, and whose magnitude is the greatest rate of change....
of less than 2%.
Regular radio transmission cannot be received while in the tunnel. Commercial stations have installed their own transmitters. A variable speed limit applies in the tunnel. In normal circumstances, the speed limit is 80km/h. During maintenance, a 60km/h speed limit applies and normal radio broadcast is regularly interrupted by announcements.