CONSTRUCTION of the Avenue of Honour overpass is nearing completion and this is one multi-million dollar project designers hope will carry a lot more significance than an ordinary road bridge.
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Working hand in hand with the Arch of Victory/Avenue of Honour Committee, VicRoads have created the overpass with the aim of maintaining the historical integrity of the avenue.
The Courier was taken on a tour of the new overpass at the Remembrance Drive and Western Highway intersection on Tuesday ahead of it's official opening next month.
The new interchange features a landscaped field on either side of the overpass which has been modelled from the battlefields of World War I that became known as the Flanders Fields.
Native wildflowers have been planted in an arc shape which will be visible to drivers travelling under the overpass.
VicRoads project director of the Western Highway works Mick McCarthy said every component of the over pass was designed with commemoration and the Anzacs in mind.
"The native wildflowers will be vibrant and in season at remembrance time," he said.
The two red coloured retaining walls on each side of the structure have been carefully imprinted to replicate the surface of oak leaves, like those from the trees in the avenue, and panels in the walls contain recessed text displaying cities where battles were fought and the names of units Ballarat men and women served in.
Mr McCarthy said the entire creation of the retaining walls was a delicate process.
"A silicon mould, prepared from the leaf pattern in the trees here, sat in the cement to create the effect," he said.
The third design feature of the new structure are the overpass bridge screens, containing the design of leaves which represents each service men and woman from Ballarat who served, while a folded red leaf of the same pattern commemorates those who lost their lives during the war.
But it wasn't only the series of visual elements that has gone into the design process.
The height of the overpass has been lifted to allow trees to planted, reconnecting the 22km avenue after being separated in 1993, and a footpath will be created to allow drivers to pull over at the interchange and walk under the bypass for a closer look.
"It will provide a good place for people to stop," Mr McCarthy said.
A special type of noise absorbing asphalt has also been used to provide a momentary quiet period for road users to reflect while driving over.
"Open graded asphalt was used so that the noise from traffic is absorbed," he said.
"It's like a sponge."
Free shuttle buses will operate on the newly opened section of the road at the official reconnection of the Ballarat Avenue of Honour ceremony on Sunday April 12 at 11am.
Arch of Victory/Avenue of Honour Committee president Bruce Price said the overpass was the perfect addition to the avenue.
"It's beyond our wildest expectations," he said.
"People should be very impressed, in a sense it puts something quiet unique at the other end of the avenue to the Arch of Victory.
AT A GLANCE
WHAT: Official reconnection of the Ballarat Avenue of Honour
WHERE: Remembrance Drive and the Western Highway intersection, Burrumbeet
WHEN: Sunday April 12, 11am to 4pm
