Projects

Canterbury Road Improvements Waterloo Street to Sunset Drive

We’re improving safety, connectivity and traffic flow at the Canterbury Road and Waterloo Street, Great Ryrie Street and Sunset Drive intersections in Heathmont.

Project update - March 2025

Major construction works are expected to begin from late-March and be completed in late-2025.

Works will be carried out in a staged approach to minimise disruptions to the community. The first stage of construction works will be focused on improvements at the Canterbury Road and Waterloo Street intersection.

Works will include:

Electrical undergrounding and vegetation removals.
Opening the median at Waterloo Street and installing new traffic lights and pedestrian crossings.
Installing dedicated right turn lanes into and out of Waterloo Street.

During the first stage of works, crews will be on site between 9:30am to 3:30pm, Mondays to Fridays.

There will be times where crews need to work at night when traffic volumes are lower to minimise disruptions to traffic and keep crews safe. We’ll let the community know before night works begin.

Please note, these dates and times are subject to favourable weather conditions.

What to expect during the first stage of works

Waterloo Street will be closed at the Canterbury Road intersection. A local detour will be in place via Cumming Street, Cuthbert Street and Sunset Drive.
Access to private properties and community spaces will be maintained.
Lane closures on Canterbury Road at the Waterloo Street intersection.
Medium levels of noise. Crews use modern equipment to keep noise to a minimum. However, the works will unavoidably emit some noise and light. For the safety of road users and workers on site, reversing beepers are required on all machinery.
Some vibrations and dust around the work site.
A reduced speed limit of 40km/h around the work site to ensure the safety of crews and all road users.

Traffic management crews will be on site to help you move through the area while we complete these important improvement works.

Detour map

Image of map showing local detour at Canterbury Road, Waterloo Street to Sunset Drive

Download a version of the detour map

What's next

Following construction works at the intersection of Waterloo Street and Canterbury Road, works will focus on improvements at the Great Ryrie Street and Canterbury Road intersection.

What we're doing

Opening the median at Waterloo Street and installing new traffic lights and pedestrian crossings.
Installing dedicated right turn lanes into and out of Waterloo Street.
Removing the U-turn from Canterbury Road travelling eastwards at Great Ryrie Street.
Adding new line markings and making changes to the traffic light operation on Great Ryrie Street allowing right turns from both lanes.
Making the right turn from Canterbury Road into Great Ryrie Street fully controlled.
Installing a new bus stop and indented bus lane with hook turn on Canterbury Road on the south side of the Great Ryrie Street intersection.
Removing the right turn in and out of Sunset Drive.
Upgrading the existing bus stop at Great Ryrie St/Canterbury Rd by installing a new rear-facing bus shelter, concrete base and pedestrian tactiles.

Artist’s impressions

Click on the green buttons below to see the artist’s impressions of the improvements as before and after sliders.

Before and After of Canterbury Road

Before and After of Sunset Drive and Canterbury Road intersection

Before and After of Waterloo Street and Canterbury Road intersection

Map of Canterbury road, Waterloo street and Sunset drive upgrade.

Download a version of the upgrade map

Image description: Map showing the improvements being made to the Canterbury Road intersections with Waterloo Street, Great Ryrie Street and Sunset Drive.

Project benefits

This project will:

improve access for vehicles to and from Waterloo Street
improve pedestrian safety and connectivity near Waterloo Street
keep traffic flowing with the new traffic lights linked with nearby traffic lights to optimise efficiency
provide better public transport connectivity in the area
provide safer access to and from side roads.

Bus stop changes

We will convert the existing school bus stop bay on Canterbury Road on the south side of the Great Ryrie Street intersection into a dedicated bus stop for Route 679. We will extend the indented bus lane, construct a new bus shelter, and provide a hook turn for buses to turn into Great Ryrie Street safely.

This new bus stop will provide better connectivity for public transport users, particularly for commuters who live and work south of Canterbury Road.

We will also improve the existing Great Ryrie St/Canterbury Rd bus stop by installing a new rear-facing bus shelter, concrete base and pedestrian tactiles. These improvements will provide better accessibility for public transport users.

Speed limit change on Canterbury Road

The speed limit on Canterbury Road from west of Waterloo Street towards Sunset Drive will be reduced from 70km/h to 60km/h in both directions to support the safe operation of the new traffic lights at Waterloo Street. This will provide a consistent speed limit in both directions of this section of Canterbury Road to support the safety, connectivity and traffic flow improvements being made.

The speed change will be implemented as part of our improvement works and we’ll keep the community informed when the speed change will become active.

The speed limit on Canterbury Road from approximately 150 metres west of Waterloo Street towards Wantirna Road will remain as 70km/h.

Please see map below for further details.

Map of Canterbury road improvements and Waterloo Sunset.

Download a version of the speed limit change map

Image description: Map of the speed limit change on Canterbury Road in Heathmont that will be implemented as part of the improvement project.

Parking changes

To help keep traffic moving and to ensure the safety of drivers, we will be making changes to street parking surrounding the intersection of Canterbury Road and Waterloo Street.

New parking restrictions will be in place to help traffic flow smoothly through the area:

A new no stopping at any time zone will be in place on the north side of Canterbury Road between Great Ryrie Street and 241 Canterbury Road.
We’ll be changing the existing time based no stopping zone in front of Heathmont Reserve to be no stopping at any time.
A new no stopping at any time zone will be in place along Waterloo Street on the Heathmont Presbyterian Church side from the intersection with Canterbury Road to the church’s southern driveway entrance.

Environment

We share the value that the local community places on the environment and work to minimise our impacts on the environment as much as possible during all stages of our projects.

To open the median and install traffic lights, create additional turning capacity, and build a safe bus stop everyone can use, we need to trim and remove some trees within the project area. We need to remove twenty-one planted trees and shrubs at the intersection of Canterbury Road and Waterloo Street. We also need to remove some native vegetation and shrubs including one large tree at Heathmont Reserve.

Prior to any vegetation removal, we investigate and work with designers to try to retain existing trees and vegetation, balancing this with the critical need to improve road safety.

We’re working with Council to offset the tree removals, with trees and vegetation to be replanted in the local area. The project area on Canterbury Road is not suitable for replanting due to safety risks, so replanting will be done outside of the project area by Council.

Project background

Canterbury Road is a key corridor in Melbourne’s east. At the intersection of Great Ryrie Street and Sunset Drive there has been a significant crash history and in the ten-year period between 2012 and 2022 there have been multiple crashes, some of which resulted in serious injuries.