EastLink (Melbourne)

EastLink is a tolled section of the M3 freeway linking a large area through the eastern and south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

EastLink is electronically tolled with no cash booths, using a system developed by SICE. The SICE Tolling System is similar to (and interoperable with) the e-TAG system used on the CityLink tollway. EastLink was opened to traffic on Sunday 29 June 2008 and in conjunction with the opening, a month-long toll-free period occurred before regular tolling commenced on 27 July 2008.

The project was constructed by a joint venture of Australian construction companies Thiess Contractors and John Holland, with tolling system contracted to SICE, and mechanical and electrical work contracted to United Group Infrastructure. The final project cost was A$2.5 billion.

Signs at the entrances and on the tollway direct to Ringwood, Dandenong, Frankston and Doncaster.

The road was originally shown in the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan as the F35 Freeway.

The freeway has been a contentious issue, amid concerns over environmental damage and the possibility it would lead to a 'complete' metropolitan ring road. In October 1999, the incoming Bracks Government announced that the freeway (which Labor had not promised at the election) had been scrapped. Instead the government promised to investigate a preferred route for the Rowville railway line and extend tram route 75 to Knox, neither of which have eventuated. However, in a "major policy about-face", the Bracks Government announced in August 2000 that it would seek federal funding for the freeway. To obtain funding, the freeway would need to be classified as a road of "national importance", despite the fact that it did not form part of the national highway system. The "U-turn"' on the freeway was strongly criticised by opponents such as the Public Transport Users Association, because it would result in proposed public transport alternatives, such as the Rowville railway line, being scrapped.

In 2001, University of Melbourne academic Paul Mees launched legal action in the Federal Court seeking an injunction, under section 475 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, to prevent Transport Minister Peter Batchelor and the Roads Corporation (VicRoads) from "taking any further action relating to the construction of the Scoresby freeway or the Eastern Ring Road". He alleged that the freeway would threaten migratory birds, plant species and wetlands and that the freeway was part of a larger plan to build a metropolitan ring road to Greensborough. In light of the court case, state government bureaucrats removed references to the metropolitan ring road from a draft Metropolitan Strategy.

In 2003, the Southern and Eastern Integrated Transport Authority (SEITA) was established by the Victorian Government, to manage and oversee the project on behalf of the government. SEITA was responsible for managing the process of selecting a private sector bidder.