The M80 Ring Road upgrade is a long-term project to widen and improve the 38 km Western and Metropolitan Ring Roads from Laverton North to Greensborough. The upgrade is being implemented in several stages. This stage is for the 9.7km of the freeway between the Tullamarine Freeway and Sydney Road. The upgraded M80 has expanded the number of traffic lanes, has more prominent noise walls, retaining walls, new bridges and gantries to accommodate new freeway management systems. A fundamental aim of the design has been to create a distinct visual identity for the M80 that integrates freeway architecture into the local landscape – a marking of the land. Noise walls and retaining walls have been designed as sculptural elements of ambiguous scale embedded into the landform with folded and creased forms with strong colours applied to punctuate and mark the manmade landscape. The effect is striking as flashes of yellow and green colour highlight the various bridge and wall locations as part of the unfolding road journey. This is freeway architecture on a big scale that uses a simple but bold material palette with the strong use of colour to striking effect.