City Road West between Clarendon Street and Power Street is a local street, and can be significantly enhanced to make it safer, more attractive and welcoming. Lower traffic volumes and a growing local community mean that there are opportunities to transform this section of the road into a great central city street.

To make it easier to demonstrate the proposed changes, City Road West has been shown in three sections to illustrate the existing and proposed street conditions.

The Kings Way Undercroft and surrounding area presents opportunities for pedestrian and cyclist improvements as well as potential open space upgrades. This action looks to build on the success of the Boyd Community Hub by expanding activity into the redundant spaces of the Kings Way Undercroft, creating a combined area of one hectare of useable public space. The design concepts displayed below illustrate how each of the three sites can be reimagined to better serve the local community.

The Northern Undercroft is located under Kings Way overpass on the northern side of City Road. It is currently occupied by a redundant taxi rank. Consolidating this space would create an area of approximately 5000m2, equivalent to 12 basketball courts. Possible uses and improvements of the Northern Undercroft could include a skate park, sports courts, play spaces, art installations, studios and events.

City Road Park is a small park on the corner of City Road and Queens Bridge Street directly opposite Boyd Community Hub. The park lacks adequate shelter, seating or protection from traffic. It is exposed to the adjacent roadways and is dominated by a large advertising billboard. The redesign of City Road Park could include arts and sculpture installations, play elements, water sensitive urban design/rain garden, interactive music and sound and seating.

The Southern Undercroft is located to the south of City Road adjacent to Moray Street. This space is difficult for pedestrians to move through. Fences, a lack of paving, flooding issues and poor signage contribute to a feeling of left over space. Possible opportunities for improving the Southern Undercroft could include: removing barriers to pedestrian access, tree planting, green open space, play elements, water sensitive urban design, seating, further tram stop upgrades and lighting upgrades.

The dominance of traffic has led to City Road East between Power Street and St Kilda Road acting as a barrier that divides Southbank, creating an unpleasant and unsafe pedestrian environment. This action aims to improve safety and amenity by removing slip lanes (at Southbank Boulevard and Southgate Avenue), removing the left turn into Fanning Street and through footpath upgrades and tree planting. City Road East must retain its arterial route function and therefore significant changes are not proposed in this section of the road.

There is an opportunity to improve the interface between City Road and St Kilda Road in order to better integrate the Arts Precinct with Southbank and reconnect City Road to the Hoddle Grid. This action proposes ways to transform the existing disconnected and poor quality pedestrian environment into a connected, inviting and engaging place for people. It is proposed to work with the Victorian Government and the Arts Centre to ensure that master planning for the Arts Centre improves pedestrian connections between City Road and the Arts Precinct.

The proposed design concept aims to improve pedestrian connections between St Kilda Road and the Arts Centre lawn to the Yarra River. It includes the upgrade of Southgate Avenue by minimising parking and through traffic while enabling better pedestrian and cycling links.

The proposed design concept aims to create an inviting entrance from City Road to the Arts Centre. A staircase and elevator would provide direct pedestrian connections between City Road and the Arts Centre and would help to integrate Southbank as part of the Arts Precinct.

Alexandra Avenue between St Kilda Road and Linlithgow Avenue presents opportunities to improve the connection between two significant gardens and provide an attractive and green gateway to Southbank. In the short term, it is proposed to introduce a signalised pedestrian crossing to connect Alexandra Gardens to Queen Victoria Gardens to improve the usability of the gardens and increase pedestrian safety. A longer term opportunity exists to introduce a central tree-lined median into this section of Alexandra Avenue to create a boulevard that will better integrate into the surrounding gardens and encourage improved driver behaviour. This more transformative proposal will be explored as part of the Domain Master Plan.

The need to improve City Road is now more important than ever. As Southbank transforms into a high density central city neighbourhood, the role of City Road needs to change to ensure that it is a pleasant place to be as well as a street that is easy and safe to get around.

The street improvements proposed in the draft master plan respond to different transport requirements along City Road and Alexandra Avenue. Due to changing conditions and space limitations along the road, not all transport modes can be accommodated in each section.

There is significant variation in traffic volumes in different segments of City Road and Alexandra Avenue. City Road’s function as a bypass to the Burnley Tunnel results in far greater traffic volumes east of Power Street compared to City Road west of Power Street. These variations highlight that there are greater opportunities for improvements west of Power Street in the shorter term.

There have been a a number of crashes in City Road, particularly at intersections which are often very large and confusing. Improved safety is a key driver for the master plan and all proposals aim to improve safety for all City Road users.

The public realm plays an important role in the way people experience, value and remember a city. Public spaces have their own stories and history, connecting the experience of the place today to its past.

The benefits of the proposed improvements to City Road are significant and will deliver a street that is safer, enjoyable to be in, more sustainable, distinct and characterful. Detailed traffic modelling has been undertaken to develop and understand the impact of the proposed actions presented in the master plan. Whilst there will be some minor increases in vehicle journey times, the various benefits of the proposal are considered to outweigh these impacts.