Works begun on two landslips on a 130m section of the Melba Highway in Dixons Creek, approximately 3km south of the Healesville-Kinglake Road intersection on Monday 13 October.
The repairs are expected to be completed by the end of January 2026, with crews working between 7am and 6pm Mondays to Saturdays. Nightworks will not be permitted for the safety of work crews.
With an eye to ensuring both lanes on the Melba Highway will be open for the Melbourne Cup long weekend from 3pm Friday 31 October to 7am Wednesday 5 November, crews will spend early works setting up the site and carrying out excavation and drainage works.
One lane of the Melba Highway will be closed during work hours over approximately 100 metres between Healesville-Kinglake Road and Hunts Lane in Dixons Creek. Temporary traffic lights and traffic controllers will be on-site to help maintain traffic flow in both directions, additional traffic signs will be installed in the area to advise drivers well in advance of the works area and there will be reduced speed limits at all times to keep crews and road users safe.
The Department of Transport and Planning’s traffic modelling shows drivers can typically expect delays of approximately 5 minutes. Longer delays may be experienced during peak times. The road will reopen to two lanes outside of working hours.
From Wednesday 5 November, crews will be repairing both landslips in the works area at the same time.
One lane of the Melba Highway will be closed at all times over approximately 200 between Healesville-Kinglake Road and Hunts Lane in Dixons Creek. Temporary traffic lights will be in place 24/7 to manage two-way traffic, traffic controllers will be on-site during work hours to help keep traffic moving during busy periods and reduced speed limits will remain in place. Similar delays to the first stage are to be expected.
The two landslips are not immediately visible from the road surface, but they have caused major damage to the ground that is supporting the highway.
Works will involve excavating and removing the road pavement, building retaining walls, reinstating and stabilising the road asphalt layers, improving drainage and reinstating safety barriers, signs and line marking.
By the end of October, there will also be a new 70km/h speed limit in place on approximately 7km of the Melba Highway between Healesville-Yarra Glen Road in Yarra Glen and Maroondah Highway in Coldstream. The 40km/h school speed zone will be maintained on the Melba Highway at Yering Primary School.
New speed signs will be installed by the end of October 2025, weather permitting and the new limit will become legally enforceable once signs are installed and uncovered.
