Western Port Highway is a highway in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, linking the south-eastern fringe of suburban

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

to the port of

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

nearly 30km to the south on the western coast of

Western Port Western Port, ( Boonwurrung: ''Warn Marin'') commonly but unofficially known as Western Port Bay, is a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia, opening into Bass Strait. It is the second largest bay in the state. Geographically, it ...

, after which the highway is named.

Route

Western Port Highway commences at Lyndhurst Interchange, where

South Gippsland Highway South Gippsland Highway is a partially divided highway connecting the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne through the South Gippsland region of in Victoria, Australia to the town of Sale. The highway serves as a gateway from Melbourne to man ...

and the alignment of

South Gippsland Freeway South Gippsland Freeway is a short freeway linking Dandenong in Melbourne's south–east to other south–eastern destinations, including the Mornington Peninsula and the Gippsland region. The freeway bears the designation M420. Route South G ...

meet at Lynbrook, and heads south directly from the southern end of South Gippsland Freeway over a bridge crossing South Gippsland Highway as a four-lane, dual-carriageway road, over the

Cranbourne railway line The Cranbourne line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's second longest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Stre ...

, passing through a set of traffic lights at Portlink Drive and Moreton Bay Boulevard, passing through a roundabout at Glasscocks Road, and traffic lights at Thompsons Road. The highway runs onwards further south, meeting Cranbourne-Frankston Road in Cranbourne South, and continues south to North Road, before narrowing to a dual-lane single carriageway road and continuing south to meet with Baxter-Tooradin Road in Pearcedale, before eventually terminating at an intersection with Frankston–Flinders Road, 2 km north of

. For most of the route the speed limit is , with shorter sections of and .

History

Western Port Highway was originally a single carriageway road called Lyndhurst Road in the 1960s, renamed some time after. The passing of the ''Country Roads Act of 1958'' (itself an evolution from the original ''Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924'') provided for the declaration of State Highways and Main Roads, roads partially financed by the State government through the

Country Roads Board The Country Roads Board was a government authority responsible for the construction and maintenance of main roads in the state of Victoria, Australia between 1913 and 1983. History The Country Roads Board (CRB) was formed to take over respon ...

(later

VicRoads VicRoads is a government joint venture in the state of Victoria, Australia. In the state, it is responsible for driver licensing and vehicle registration. It is owned and operated through a joint venture between the Victorian government an ...

). A southern extension to the existing declaration of Dandenong–Hastings Road, subsuming a section of Tyabb–Tooradin Road between

Somerville Somerville may refer to: Places Australia *Somerville, Victoria, a town **Somerville railway station * Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia New Zealand * Somerville, New Zealand, a suburb of Manukau City, New Zea ...

and Hastings, was declared a Main Road on 9 May 1983. Dandenong-Hasting Road was progressively upgraded to a divided highway between

and Cranbourne–Frankston Road during the 1990s, as dramatically increasing freight traffic volumes to and from Hastings necessitated major upgrades, including eliminating the level crossing with the

with an overpass in 2001. The passing of the '' Transport Act of 1983'' updated the definition of State Highways. Western Port Highway was declared a State Highway in March 1994, from

at Lynbrook to Frankston-Flinders Road at

. The passing of the ''Road Management Act 2004'' granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to

: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Western Port Highway (Arterial #6230), beginning at

at Lynbrook and ending at Frankston-Flinders Road in

. Dandenong-Hastings Road was signed Metropolitan Route 65 in 1989. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s this was replaced by route A780. After further upgrades, this was converted to route M780 between Lynbrook and Cranbourne South in 2000, with a further extension south between Cranbourne South and Langwarrin after further duplication in 2009.

had planned to convert the highway to a six- to eight-lane freeway standard between South Gippsland Freeway and about 1.2 km south of Cranbourne-Frankston Road with full grade-separated interchanges at Glasscocks, Thompsons, Hall and Cranbourne–Frankston Roads, and a half-diamond interchange (north-facing ramps only) at Ballarto Road, with a report released in August 2014, however the State Government abandoned any plans for the upgrade, which was estimated to cost $1 billion, in mid-2016.

Upgrades

*2001 – Duplication of 4.4 km between South Gippsland Freeway in Lynbrook and Thompsons Road in Lyndhurst, including overpass of

, completed January 2001, at a cost of $30.5 million. *2009 – Duplication of 3.9 km between Cranbourne-Frankston Road in Cranbourne South and North Road in Langwarrin.

Major intersections

References

{{Road infrastructure in Victoria Highways in Australia Highways and freeways in Melbourne Highways in Victoria (state) Transport in the City of Greater Dandenong Transport in the City of Casey Transport in the Shire of Mornington Peninsula Transport in the City of Frankston

Route

History

Upgrades

Major intersections

See also

References