State (Bell/Springvale) Highway

The State (Bell/Springvale) Highway,[1] also known as Route 40 or the Bell / Springvale State Highway, is the longest self-contained urban highway in Melbourne, Australia, linking Tullamarine Freeway and the Nepean Highway. It is classed as an arterial road,[1] and allocated State Route 40. Various street names are used along the highway – Banksia Street, Bell-Banksia Link, Bell Street, Manningham Road, and Springvale Road.[1]

State (Bell/Springvale) Highway Victoria
General information
Type	Road
Length	57 km (35 mi)
Route number(s)	State Route 40 (Entire Route) Tourist Route 2 (Heidelberg - Bulleen) State Route 47 (Templestowe Lower - Doncaster) State Route 36 (Doncaster - Donvale)
Former route number	State Route 11 Along Springvale Road
Major junctions
West end	Tullamarine Freeway, Strathmore, Melbourne
	Sydney Road Rosanna Road Eastern Freeway / EastLink Whitehorse Road Burwood Highway Monash Freeway Princes Highway Westall Road Mornington Peninsula Freeway for full list see major intersections
South end	Nepean Highway, Edithvale, Melbourne
Location(s)
Major suburbs	Coburg, Heidelberg, Doncaster, Nunawading, Glen Waverley, Springvale

The highway experiences considerable congestion. Throughout the 1980s and '90s, the Doncaster Road section carried around 50,000 vehicles per hour at peak, but this number dropped in 1997 after the extension of the Eastern Freeway.

In January 2010, rail tracks in Nunawading were lowered below ground as part grade separation project. A similar project was undertaken in Springvale in May 2014.[2] As of January 2019, there are now three railway grade separations along the route, in Edithvale, Preston and Coburg. All of them will be removed as part of Level Crossing Removal Project by 2022.[3]

The road itself varies in capacity over its length between three-laned dual carriageways and two-way single carriageways. Many junctions such as the Nepean Highway, Princes Highway, Monash Freeway, Eastern Freeway, Hume Highway and Tullamarine Freeway contribute to large traffic volumes along Route 40.