One was for a north–south freeway along the line of Latrobe Terrace, though Geelong West and Chilwell, and another was for Aberdeen Street to be upgraded into a major road with the acquisition of 99 houses.

[3] The alignment was finalised in 1979 and appeared as a proposed freeway in the Melway street directory for a number of years.

Growing traffic volumes through the centre of Geelong led to Latrobe Terrace being converted into a major arterial road in early 1989, with the construction of a bridge over the Geelong-Melbourne railway line at its northern end, and the James Harrison Bridge over the Barwon River at its southern end.

[7] Construction on the Geelong Ring Road began in early 2006 with the freeway section to Waurn Ponds scheduled for completion in 2009.

[18][19] In October 2007, during the 2007 Federal election campaign the Labor party promised $107.5 million for the fourth stage of the road.

[25] This stage (Section 4C) opened on 3 June 2015, six months ahead of schedule,[26][27] and later gazetted as Baanip Boulevard, after Willem Baa Nip, a local Wathaurung man well known to the Geelong community during the 1800s.

[28] A shared bicycle and pedestrian pathway has also been built along the freeway from Broderick Road, Corio to Church Street, Hamlyn Heights.

[29] Built at a cost of $4 million, the trail will not connect into the Geelong bicycle network, due to a short missing link between Church Street and the Fyansford Common.

Since 2017, early planning has been undertaken by the Victorian Government to determine a preferred alignment for a future extension, however it is unlikely that this section will be built in the short-term.

[34] The 200m long bridges over the Moorabool River, the largest on the project, had the final span installed on 6 March 2008.

[37] Local police expressed concerns about a staged opening of the road, with drivers using temporary shortcuts not suited to heavy traffic and large vehicles.

Section three works include 7.5 kilometres of freeway, the transportation of 4.7 million cubic metres of earth, and twin 110-metre long bridges over the Barwon River.

[40] By February 2008 550,000 cubic metres of earth had been moved to the north and south of Barrabool Road, and the foundation works for the arch structure over Wandana Drive were complete.

The completion of the Geelong Ring Road was expected to bring large economic benefits to the region.

There has been no environmental study that shows that the construction of the Geelong Ring Road would adversely affect the environment.

[citation needed] In 1991 VicRoads undertook its own study and decided to abandon plans to utilise the Section 3 route in favour of a bypass from Avalon Road across Corio Bay to Point Henry and then along the Barwon River valley to the Surf Coast Highway, Anglesea Road and Princes Highway West.

VicRoads proposes 4 alternate routes with the result that further opposition was generated from people located close to Options 2 and 3.