Chandler Highway

Chandler Highway is a short road in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, connecting Alphington over the Yarra River and Eastern Freeway to Kew. Its total length is less than 2 kilometres, leading to the claim that it is "the shortest highway in the world". It was named after a prominent local businessman and politician A. E. Chandler, who was instrumental in pushing through the development of the Outer Circle railway.

Route

In the north, the Chandler Highway commences at the intersection with Heidelberg Road and Grange Road in Alphington, and runs south as a six-lane, dual-carriageway road, crossing the Yarra River shortly afterwards, and narrowing to a four-lane dual-carriageway road at the intersection with Yarra Boulevard on the river's southern bank.

History

The Fairfield Park to Riversdale section of the Outer Circle railway line opened on 24 March 1891, running from Fairfield Park station, via East Camberwell station, to Riversdale station. The line closed shortly after, in 1893, due to a lack of passengers, leaving a disused railway bridge crossing the Yarra River. After the rails were lifted from the bridge in 1919, the single-track railway line north of the bridge, running from Fairfield station through the middle of the Heidelberg Road-Chandler Highway intersection, became the Australian Paper Manufacturers siding, which was closed in the mid-1990s. In 1930, the bridge was re-purposed as the "Chandler Highway", which crossed the Yarra and incorporated Fulham Road, south of Heidelberg Road, which the former railway had cut through.Chandler Highway and Bridge Act 1954
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The ''Chandler Highway and Bridge Act 1954'', passed by the Parliament of Victoria on 4 May 1954, declared the Chandler Highway over the former rail bridge a "public highway" and removed any obligation on the Victorian Railways to maintain it. In December 1954, the Country Roads Board (CRB) (later VicRoads) performed major maintenance on the bridge, involving deck renewal and the strengthening of the original trusses. It was discovered that the amount of steel corrosion was much greater than expected, lengthening the completion time well into the following year. On 7 September 1960, the CRB declared the Chandler Highway a Main Road, from Heidelberg Road in Alphington, to Princess Street in Kew.

The Chandler Highway became Metropolitan Route 21 in 1965. It shared Metropolitan Route 2, from Yarra Boulevard on the southern bank of the river, to the road's northern terminus at Heidelberg Road, also designated in 1965. That was replaced by Tourist Route 2 in 1989.

The passing of the ''Road Management Act 2004'' gave the responsibility for the management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads. In 2004, VicRoads declared the road as Chandler Highway (Arterial #5859), from Heidelberg Road in Alphington, to Princess Street in Kew. Despite being called a highway, the road is still classified as a Main Road by VicRoads.

Chandler Highway was originally planned to be extended east along the former Outer Circle railway line corridor to the intersection of Earl, Asquith and Valerie Streets intersect at High Street in East Kew, and, although the route was still listed as a "proposed arterial" in 1980s editions of the Melway

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