The Eastern Freeway is an urban freeway in eastern Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. It is one of the most important freeways in terms of commuting to the city, connecting Alexandra Parade and Hoddle Street in the inner suburbs, with EastLink tollway farther east. It consists of between three and six lanes (including the Hard Shoulder Running lane during peak periods) in each direction, also an inbound transit lane reserved for vehicles with two or more occupants during peak hours. It is continually the widest freeway in Melbourne, with 12 lanes altogether near the Hoddle Street and Alexandra Parade end. Route The Eastern Freeway starts at its junction with Hoddle Street, as an eastern continuation of Alexandra Parade, with six lanes eastbound and three lanes westbound. Three more lanes (that provide an exit to Hoddle Street) join the westbound carriageway after it leaves the junction, and after a short distance both directions narrow from six to five lanes in each direction. The freeway narrows again to four lanes in each direction near Chandler Highway and Yarra Bend. The freeway narrows once more to three lanes just before Bulleen Road, and features a concrete barrier rather than the grassy median that was designed to carry a railway. There is a short four lane section between Tram and Blackburn Roads, then three lanes to the end at Springvale Road, and connects to the EastLink toll road to Ringwood and Frankston. The freeway was unique in that it did not connect to any other freeway prior to EastLink being built. The travel time on the Eastern Freeway in each direction is 13 minutes: 5 minutes between Springvale Road and Doncaster Road, and 8 minutes between Doncaster Road and Hoddle Street). In peak period, travel time is between 16–26 minutes. However, during times of extreme congestion, including residual from an incident, the travel time can go well beyond half an hour. The entire freeway has a speed limit. There are no fixed speed cameras, however Victoria Police regularly patrol the full length of the freeway to enforce the speed limit. VicRoads also operates a network of CCTV cameras across the entire length of the freeway and abnormal traffic movements by vehicles are reported to Victoria Police. History Construction started on the first section of freeway between Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill and Bulleen Road Balwyn North in 1971 by the Melbourne and Metropolitan