Monash Freeway | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Monash Freeway viewed from the Toorak Road overpass | |
  Northwest end Southeast end | |
| Coordinates | |
| General information | |
| Type | Freeway |
| Length | 34 km (21 mi)[1] |
| Opened | 1962–2003 |
| Route number(s) |  M1(1996–present) |
| Former route number |
|
| Major junctions | |
| Northwest end |  CityLinkKooyong, Melbourne |
| |
| Southeast end | Princes Freeway Narre Warren, Melbourne |
| Location(s) | |
| LGA(s) | |
| Major suburbs / towns | Kooyong,Glen Iris,Chadstone,Mulgrave,Dandenong North,Doveton,Narre Warren |
| Highway system | |
TheMonash Freeway[2] is a major urban freeway inVictoria,Australia, linkingMelbourne's CBD to its south-eastern suburbs and beyond to theGippsland region. It carries up to 180,000 vehicles per day[citation needed] and is one ofAustralia's busiest freeways. The entire stretch of the Monash Freeway bears the designationM1.
The freeway is named in honour ofGeneral SirJohn Monash, an esteemed Australian military commander for theallies duringWorld War I.
The Monash Freeway is an amalgamation of two initially separate freeways: theMulgrave Freeway (initially designated Freeway Route 81) linkingWarrigal Road,Chadstone to thePrinces Highway inEumemmerring; and theSouth Eastern Freeway (initially designated Metropolitan Route 80, then Freeway Route 80) linkingPunt Road,Richmond andToorak Road,Hawthorn East.
Plans for a "Mulgrave By-pass Road and Eumemmerring By-pass Road" had been made as far back as 1966, between Warrigal Road in Chadstone and Princes Highway at Eumemmerring.[3] TheCountry Roads Board started construction in the 1969/70 financial year,[4] with the initial section of road opened to traffic in late 1972 with two names: asMulgrave Freeway (fromStud Road inDandenong North toDoveton), andEumemmerring Freeway (from Doveton toPrinces Highway atEumemmerring);[5] Eumemmerring Freeway was later separated and renamedSouth Gippsland Freeway in April 1974,[6] and extended further south toHampton Park in 1976.[7] Through the 1970s and the early 1980s, the Mulgrave Freeway was progressively extended westward to Springvale Road in 1974,[6] Blackburn Road in 1976,[7] Forster Road in 1977,[7] Huntingdale Road in 1979, and finally toWarrigal Road inChadstone. The Freeway Route 81 designation was removed in 1988, coinciding with the opening of the South Eastern Arterial and its replacement by National Route 1.
At this time theTullamarine Freeway also carried the Freeway Route 81 shield. This was due to the1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan having the two freeways linked to each other from around East Malvern (at the Mulgrave Freeway end) and at Flemington (at the Tullamarine Freeway end), sweeping through the St Kilda area. The plan never came to fruition, but the two freeways have since been linked by theWest Gate Freeway extension and theCityLink project.
Construction of the initial section of the South Eastern Freeway by theMelbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works had been completed and opened in 1962,[10] connectingBurnley at Burnley Street, throughCremorne via Harcourt Parade, over Punt Road using a new overpass (known as the Morshead Overpass during construction[11]) to end at Anderson Street and theMorell Bridge, with an at-grade intersection with Brunton Avenue and a single-carriageway feeder road to theSwan Street bridge (and Batman Avenue) 800 metres beyond. The freeway was eventually further extended east from Burnley under theMacRobertson Bridge along theYarra River toToorak Road in 1970,[12] with a single-carriageway feeder road taking excess traffic to Tooronga Road. The Punt Road overpass and elevated section of road over theYarra River andGardiners Creek were designed by Melbourne engineerBruce Day. Responsibility for the freeway was transferred from the MMBW to theCountry Roads Board on 1 July 1974.[6]
Initially designated Metropolitan Route 80 in 1965, it was later signed as Freeway Route 80 in 1970 when the extension to Kooyong opened.
The resulting gap between the Toorak Road end of the South Eastern Freeway and the Warrigal Road end of the Mulgrave Freeway frustrated drivers for many years; motorists had to rely on inadequate feeder roads to connect between the two freeways.[13] Plans to link the two freeways dated from August 1978, while still extending the Mulgrave Freeway, from a Steering Committee appointed by the government in 1976 to carry out the "Gardiners Creek Valley Study": the study involved the Ministries for Planning, of Transport and for Conservation, theMelbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, Town and Country Planning Board,Malvern,Camberwell andHawthorn City Councils and theCountry Roads Board, with an extensive process of public consultation.[14] The subsequent route agreed to was referred to as the "South Eastern Freeway, Malvern Section" and was ultimately the alignment constructed.[14]
Construction of the link as a dual-carriageway road began in 1985,[15] opening to traffic in late 1988,[16] originally with two lanes in each direction, and declared a State Highway.[16] The link road, as well as the South Eastern and Mulgrave Freeways, were all renamed theSouth Eastern Arterial.[16] This road assumed the National Route 1 route number from thePrinces Highway, which became an alternative route. The project attracted a great deal of controversy just before it opened and well afterwards: in order to save costs, only one freeway-style interchange had been constructed (underneath High Street in Glen Iris). Every other interchange with major roads along the route (Toorak, Burke, Tooronga and Warrigal Roads) was an at-grade intersection controlled by traffic-lights, and because the road was constructed through residential areas, reduced speed limits were also enforced. This led to heavy congestion, frequently kilometres long, on the freeway, fuelling anger and frustration, and attracting a moniker of "the South-Eastern Carpark".
With achange of government some years later and a lot of political showmanship, more money was poured into the road: ramps connecting Police Road (to complement the existing ramps at Jacksons Road) opened in 1993, to improve traffic flow to Waverley Gardens andAFL Park;[17] and on the link road, construction of an overpass acrossWarrigal Road in 1994,[18] and underpass interchanges at Toorak and Burke Roads (and just an underpass at Tooronga Road) soon afterwards. The name changed from South Eastern Arterial back toSouth Eastern Freeway for the full length of the freeway after upgrade works (including noise reduction measures, new landscaping and improvements to the adjacent cycle path) were completed in early 1997.[19] The improved road dramatically improved the rate of outbound traffic; however, the bottleneck at the Swan Street Bridge still remained and the queues only got longer.
The previous Freeway Route designations (Freeway Route 80 along the South Eastern Freeway, and Freeway Route 81 along the Mulgrave Freeway) were removed in 1988 with the opening of the South Eastern Arterial, and replaced by National Route 1.
The name changed yet again two years later to the currentMonash Freeway in 1999, so named byPremierJeff Kennett after General SirJohn Monash, a renowned Australian soldier, engineer, scholar and nation builder. In the late 1990s, construction ofCityLink's Southern Link project began, with the aim of linking the north-western end of the freeway (then terminating at Batman Avenue) to the eastern-end of theWest Gate Freeway by way of tunnels underneath the city, allowing for an uninterrupted voyage past the CBD. A portion of the existing Monash Freeway at the city end (from Toorak to Punt Roads) was subsumed into the Southern Link, and while this portion was widened and upgraded, as part of the CityLink project it was also tolled, attracting criticism from road users. The Southern Link fully opened and tolling commenced on 28 December 2000.[21]
With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, the freeway's former National Route 1 designation began conversion to the M1 in late 1996, and was completed in 1997.[19]
Before this bypass was constructed, the sweeping curve of the freeway at the Hallam end that became the South Gippsland Freeway had its capacity reduced from three lanes to two, resulting in a notorious bottle-neck at peak hours, especially for outbound traffic exiting at the Princes Highway interchange outside Dandenong; the extension finally bypassed the entire problem.
Construction on the 7.5 km-long (4.7 mi) Hallam Bypass, linking the Monash Freeway to thePrinces Freeway inBerwick, began in the 1999/2000 financial year,[22] and was completed after 3 years of construction to open in July 2003, 17 months ahead of schedule and $10 million under budget for a total cost $165 million.[23] This was due to the omission of one key interchange that should have linked the South Gippsland Freeway with the Hallam Bypass at Eummemmering[citation needed]. This omission causes unnecessary congestion on neighbouring roads as northbound South Gippsland Freeway traffic must exit the freeway at Princes Highway only to join the same freeway again from Belgrave-Hallam Road eastbound.[citation needed]
The Monash Freeway allows travel fromMorwell in the central Latrobe Valley, toColac south-west ofGeelong – via CityLink, the West Gate, the Geelong Ring Road and Princes Freeways. Motorists can cover over 260 km (160 mi) and only encounter traffic lights atYarragon andTrafalgar, which are yet to be bypassed. The construction of the bypass also included theHallam Bypass Trail shared path.
The passing of theRoad Management Act 2004[24] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads toVicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declaredMonash Freeway (Freeway #1000) from the "Southern Link Tollway" (CityLink's Southern Link) atKooyong toPrinces Highway inNarre Warren.[2]
The freeway was originally shown in the1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan as part of the F9 and F14 Freeway corridors.
In 2007, the state government announced a major upgrade widening the lanes from Glenferrie Road through to Heatherton Road. Prior to this, over 160,000 vehicles per day used this freeway resulting in congestion during peak hours. The upgrade started in late 2007 and was completed in 2010. The entire project was known as the Monash-CityLink-West Gate upgrade, and was carried out byVicRoads andTransurban.[25]
 | Parts of this article (those related to Status of 2016–22 upgrades) need to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2023) |
The Monash Freeway (and parts of thePrinces Freeway continuing eastward) are to be upgraded to accommodate an extra lane in each direction betweenWarrigal Road inChadstone and Cardinia Road inOfficer. Stage 1, completed between 2016 and 2018, added extra lanes betweenEastLink and Clyde Road inBerwick. Stage 2, completed between 2020 and 2022, added extra lanes in the remaining segments, re-connected Police Road with its own outbound ramp and added dedicated ramps to Eastlink from Jacksons Road, upgraded the entire section to use VicRoads' traffic management system, and upgraded and extended O'Shea Road to join the Beaconsfield Interchange.[26]
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The freeway officially begins at the southern end ofCityLink, at Toorak Road. Here the freeway is five lanes wide. The opposing carriageways of the freeway are relatively near to each other and are separated by a concrete barrier. This section has overhead lighting. This first section of freeway runs through the south-eastern suburbs ofMalvern,Glen Iris andMalvern East.
AfterWarrigal Road, the freeway is built within a much wider road reserve, allowing for a wide grass centremedian with steel barrier separating the carriageways. This section does not have overhead lighting and carries four or five lanes on each carriageway. This section runs through south-eastern metropolitan Melbourne, including the suburbs ofChadstone,Mount Waverley,Mulgrave, andDandenong toDoveton. Finally, the newest portion of the freeway, the Hallam bypass, carries three lanes each way and runs pastHallam toNarre Warren, where it becomes thePrinces Freeway.
The M1 route also carries the recently developedVicRoads Traffic Management System which included Freeway On-Ramp metering (with road loops and signals), over-head speed limit and lane signs and electronic message boards; there are also various CCTV cameras and traffic sensors to monitor traffic flow and conditions constantly. Electronic 'Estimated Travel Time' boards are also used in conjunction with the sensors.
Standard travel time for Monash Freeway/CityLink (Southern link), in both directions, is 32 minutes: 7 minutes between Clyde Road and theSouth Gippsland Freeway, 5 minutes between theSouth Gippsland Freeway andEastLink, 8 minutes betweenEastLink andWarrigal Road, 5 minutes betweenWarrigal Road andToorak Road and 7 minutes betweenToorak Road andKings Way (which is outside theDomain Tunnel on theWest Gate Freeway).
The usual peak period travel time with traffic congestion is between 45 and 70 minutes. Some of the slowest intersections at these times include the EastLink and South Gippsland Freeway interchanges. In times of extreme congestion or traffic accidents, the travel time can quickly increase to as high as 110 minutes.
| LGA | Location[1][2] | km[1] | mi | Exit[27] | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stonnington | Kooyong–Malvern boundary | 0.0 | 0.0 | E4 |  CityLink (M1 northwest) –City,Melbourne Airport | North-western freeway terminus: continues northwest as CityLink's Southern Link |
 Toorak Road (Metro Route 26) – Toorak,Burwood | Single-point urban interchange | |||||
| Glen Iris | 1.5 | 0.93 | E5 |  Burke Road (Metro Route 17) – Caulfield,Camberwell | ||
| 2.6 | 1.6 | E6 |  High Street (Metro Route 24) – Glen Waverley,Glen Iris | Northwestern entrance and southeastern exit only | ||
| Stonnington–Monash boundary | Malvern East–Chadstone boundary | 6.7 | 4.2 | E7 |  Warrigal Road (Metro Route 15) – Oakleigh,Chadstone | |
| Monash | Chadstone–Mount Waverley boundary | 8.4 | 5.2 | 8 |  Huntingdale Road (Metro Route 47) – Huntingdale,Burwood | Southeastern entrance and northwestern exit only |
| Mount Waverley | 10.5 | 6.5 | 9 | Forster Road – Clayton,Mount Waverley | ||
| Mount Waverley–Glen Waverley boundary | 11.7 | 7.3 | 10 |  Blackburn Road (Metro Route 13) – Clayton,Blackburn,Monash University | Southeastern entrance via England Road | |
| Mulgrave | 12.9 | 8.0 | 11 |  Ferntree Gully Road (Metro Route 22) – Ferntree Gully,Mount Dandenong | Northwestern entrance and southeastern exit only | |
| Mulgrave–Wheelers Hill boundary | 13.8 | 8.6 | 12 |  Springvale Road (Metro Route 40) – Springvale,Glen Waverley | Southeastern entrance and northwestern exit only | |
| 15.6 | 9.7 | 13 |  Wellington Road (Metro Route 18) – Rowville,Oakleigh,Monash University | Northwestern exit and northwestern entrance westbound only, southeastern exit and southeastern entrance eastbound only | ||
| Mulgrave | 18.0 | 11.2 | 14 |  Jacksons Road (C655) – Mulgrave,Noble Park | No northwestern exit, southeastern entrance to EastLink only | |
| Monash–Greater Dandenong boundary | Mulgrave–Dandenong North boundary | 18.3 | 11.4 | 15 |  Police Road (Metro Route 16) – Springvale,Dandenong North | Southeastern entrance and northwestern exit only |
| Greater Dandenong | Dandenong North | 19.5 | 12.1 | 16 |  EastLink (M3) – Ringwood,Frankston | Tom Wills Interchange; partialturbine interchange: no southeastern entrance northbound or northwestern exit southbound |
| 21.9 | 13.6 | 17 |  Stud Road (Metro Route 9) – Rowville,Dandenong | |||
| Casey | Doveton–Endeavour Hills boundary | 23.7 | 14.7 | 18 |  Heatherton Road (Metro Route 14) – Noble Park,Endeavour Hills | |
| 26.3 | 16.3 | 19 |  South Gippsland Freeway (M420) – Cranbourne,Hastings | Partialsemi-directional T interchange: no southeastern entrance | ||
| Hallam–Narre Warren North boundary | 28.2 | 17.5 | 20 |  Belgrave–Hallam Road (B675) – Hallam,Endeavour Hills | ||
| Narre Warren | 29.9 | 18.6 | 21 | Ernst Wanke Road – Narre Warren | Northwestern entrance and southeastern exit only | |
| 32.2 | 20.0 | 22 |  Narre Warren North Road (C404) – Belgrave,Narre Warren | |||
| Narre Warren–Berwick boundary | 33.8 | 21.0 | 23 |   Princes Highway (Alt National Route 1 west/C101 east) – Berwick,Dandenong | ||
| Princes Freeway (M1 southeast) – Pakenham,Warragul,Traralgon | South-eastern freeway terminus: continues as Princes Freeway | |||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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