Design work has started on the $45 million upgrade of Old Sydney Road at Beveridge, north of Melbourne. Federal money will seal and rebuild 5.6 kilometres of road between Mitchell Shire’s southern boundary with Hume and Camerons Lane, plus add a new single-lane roundabout at the Camerons Lane end.
Roads & Infrastructure reported that Mitchell Shire Council has appointed a civil engineer and design consultant through a public tender, and that the consultant is now investigating the condition of the existing road and the land around it.
The road matters more than its gravel surface suggests. It’s the local alternative to the Hume Freeway for traffic moving between Beveridge and the rest of Mitchell Shire, and it carries a bit of history as a route used by early European explorers.
Mitchell Shire Mayor John Dougall said the community had run out of patience with the current arrangement.
“We know how frustrated our Beveridge community is with traffic,” Dougall said.
“People are leaving home earlier and getting back later. That time comes straight out of their family life.
An unsealed road doing freeway duty
The section being upgraded runs from Gunns Gully Road, the shire’s boundary with Hume, to Camerons Lane, and the tender listing for the detailed design contract describes it as currently rural unsealed. Council puts the length at 5.57 kilometres; the trade press rounds it to 5.6.
That’s the bit that stings for locals. When something closes the Hume, as a truck fire did in December 2024, traffic peels off onto a gravel road that was never built for it, according to a Mitchell Shire Council release published by Mirage News.
The Federal Government has committed $45 million to seal 5.57 kilometres of Old Sydney Road at Beveridge as one of the first three projects under its $1.2 billion suburban road blitz, Mitchell Shire Council says.
Dougall was careful not to oversell what the job delivers.
“This road won’t fix congestion on its own,” Dougall said. “What it does is give people a real choice about how they get in and out of Beveridge.”
Federal Member for McEwen Rob Mitchell secured the funding commitment and attended the site visit marking the start of planning and detailed design, the council said in the release carried by Mirage News.
What the crews on site are actually doing
Nothing gets built this year. What’s happening over the coming weeks is the unglamorous front end: small crews surveying and mapping the road from the ground and from the air, testing the ground the road sits on, and locating underground services such as pipes and cables.
That last one decides a lot about the eventual build. A rural road corridor with unmapped water, telco and power assets in it is where a sealing job quietly turns into a service relocation job, and the cost of finding that out with an excavator bucket instead of a locator is the reason councils pay for the survey first.
Geotech results will do the same to the pavement design. Seal 5.6 kilometres of an existing gravel alignment and the question isn’t the bitumen, it’s what’s under it: subgrade strength, moisture, and how much of the existing formation can be reused rather than carted off and replaced.
The order book: late 2027, not next year
For anyone in civil work in the Hume corridor, the dates are the story. Detailed design runs until May 2027. The construction tender opens mid-2027, the contract is awarded late 2027, and work on the ground runs from late 2027 to March 2029, according to the council release published by Mirage News.
The completion date moves around a little depending on which document you read. Roads & Infrastructure put construction completion between late 2027 and early 2029, the Mirage News release says March 2029, and council’s current projects table lists June 2029.
Practically, that means earthworks, drainage and pavement crews looking at this job are bidding in the second half of 2027 for work that starts after that. It’s a different planning horizon to a subdivision that needs a slab crew next month, and it’s worth knowing before anyone commits a second float or takes on an extra operator on the strength of a press release.
The design contract itself is already let. Tender RFT 202651, under the official project name “Gunns Gully Road to Camerons Lane”, was published on 23 May 2026 and closed on 29 June 2026.
It isn’t the only hole being dug in Beveridge
The $45 million seal sits next to two much larger pieces of work in the same growth pocket. The Camerons Lane Interchange carries a $900 million federal commitment and has its business case complete, with the project now in pre-construction, Victoria’s Big Build says. Community consultation in March and April 2026 returned 95 per cent support from survey respondents.
Further north, the Watson Street Interchange at Wallan has $90 million in federal funding and $80 million from the state, per the council material carried by Mirage News.
Stack those against council’s own road budget and the scale is clear enough: Mitchell Shire’s capital works program allocates $18.53 million to maintaining and improving its entire road network, roughly a third of what Canberra is putting into this single 5.6 kilometre stretch.
The next real milestone for anyone chasing the work is mid-2027, when the construction tender opens. Before that, watch what the service locating and geotech investigations turn up, because that’s what sets the scope the successful contractor will be pricing.
Frequently asked questions
When will construction start on Old Sydney Road at Beveridge?
Not until late 2027. Detailed design runs until May 2027, the construction tender opens mid-2027, and a contract is expected to be awarded late 2027, with work on the ground running into 2029.
How much is the Old Sydney Road upgrade costing?
The Federal Government has committed $45 million to seal and rebuild 5.57 kilometres of the currently unsealed road, plus a new single-lane roundabout at the Camerons Lane end.
Why does Old Sydney Road need upgrading?
It’s the local alternative to the Hume Freeway for traffic around Beveridge, but it’s currently rural and unsealed. When incidents close the Hume, such as a truck fire in December 2024, traffic diverts onto a gravel road never built for freeway-level volumes.
Sourced from Roads & Infrastructure, Mitchell Shire Council, Mirage News, Australian Tenders, Victoria’s Big Build. Original article.
