The brief report released by the North East Link Authority shows that once works are complete the Eastern Freeway at its widest point in Doncaster will be 119 metres. Loading A VicRoads design document, describes a typical eight-lane urban freeway as about 44 metres wide. The freeway near Middleborough Road in Box Hill will be 111 metres wide. As it passes the Blackburn Road interchange in Doncaster East, it will be 100 metres wide. “This road will take a huge amount of land – we are talking 16 or 20 lanes from Collingwood to Blackburn,” said Melbourne University transport planning lecturer John Stone.

In Melbourne, only the 300-metre-wide interchange between the Monash Freeway and EastLink is bigger. And nationally, the Warringah Freeway in Sydney is bigger than the Eastern will be. Also to go in the Eastern Freeway expansion is land that was identified for railway stations at Bulleen and East Kew in a 2014 study for the proposed Doncaster rail line. The road widening will in effect prevent that rail line being built, with a new dedicated “busway” to use land needed for a railway reservation. “They are taking everything they can get in the freeway reserve, including the Doncaster rail reservation, and then coming for the parkland,” Dr Stone said. The North East Link will connect the Eastern Freeway in Bulleen to the Metropolitan Ring Road in Greensborough.

It is designed to free up road space in the north-east, particularly on Heidelberg's Rosanna Road, which has become a major truck thoroughfare. The business case for the road expansion says the Eastern Freeway is busiest at 6am and at 3pm – rather than at more typical peak times such as 8am or 5pm. This is because the road simply grinds to a halt at peak hours because of the volume of cars trying to use it. The North East Link interchange to be built in Bulleen. Credit:North East Link Authority The Balwyn North, Bulleen and Doncaster land is among 1000 hectares affected by the project.

The widest point of added road space is in the Koonung Creek Reserve in Balwyn North. Chris Drieberg and his family built their house opposite this Balwyn North reserve more than a decade ago. They will now see the freeway brought about 50 metres closer to their home. Mr Drieberg and wife Sharon walk their dog Aussie in the reserve daily, and the couple have seen the local Boroondara Council slowly turn the reserve into a popular destination. But the freeway expansion would render much of the park unusable, said Mr Drieberg, who added his family had always assumed the freeway would be widened. “But never by this much." Boroondara mayor Jim Parke said six hectares of the 31-hectare reserve would go to make way for the freeway. “This is a significant loss,” he said.

Dr Stone said taking park for roadways was the opposite of what other cities around the world were doing in built-up areas. “The smart cities are removing freeways to improve parklands, not taking away parklands to widen freeways,” he said. North East Link Authority chief executive Duncan Elliott said every attempt was being made to minimise impacts on parklands. And Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said bids to build the road from the private sector would cut affects on public land. "The Eastern Freeway will be widened so that the North East Link can do what it needs to do – take trucks off local streets and give these streets back to local residents," Mr Donnellan said. Max Lay is a former VicRoads director who worked on the Eastern Freeway extension from Doncaster to Nunawading.