Western Port Highway

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (January 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Western Port Highway Victoria
North end South end
Coordinates	38°02′11″S 145°14′50″E / 38.036288°S 145.247114°E / -38.036288; 145.247114 (North end) 38°16′20″S 145°11′24″E / 38.272091°S 145.189956°E / -38.272091; 145.189956 (South end)
General information
Type	Highway
Length	27.8 km (17 mi)[1]
Route number(s)	M780 (2000–present) (Lynbrook-Langwarrin) A780 (1997–present) (Langwarrin-Hastings)
Former route number	A780 (1997–2000) (Lynbrook-Langwarrin) State Route 65 (1989–1997) Entire route
Major junctions
North end	South Gippsland Freeway Lynbrook, Melbourne
	South Gippsland Highway Thompsons Road Cranbourne-Frankston Road Baxter-Tooradin Road
South end	Frankston-Flinders Road Hastings, Victoria
Location(s)
Major settlements	Dandenong South, Lyndhurst, Skye, Cranbourne West, Langwarrin, Pearcedale, Somerville, Tyabb
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in Victoria

Western Port Highway (formerly Dandenong-Hastings Road^[2]) is a highway in Victoria, Australia, linking the south-eastern fringe of suburban Melbourne to the western coast of Western Port Bay, after which the highway is named, at the Port of Hastings nearly 30 km to the south. It runs from the end of the South Gippsland Freeway at Lynbrook firstly as a dual carriageway and later as an undivided road to Frankston-Flinders Road at Hastings.

Route[]

The highway begins at Lyndhurst interchange, where the South Gippsland Highway and the alignment of the South Gippsland Freeway meet, outside Lynbrook; Western Port Highway is linked directly to the southern end of the South Gippsland Freeway by an overpass over the South Gippsland Highway. From the interchange, Western Port Highway runs south as a two-lane (each way), dual carriageway, over the Cranbourne railway line, 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 through roundabout intersections with Hall Road, Ballarto Road and Cranbourne-Frankston Road. The road continues south to North Road as a dual carriageway, before reverting to a dual-lane single carriageway road to Hastings. It continues further south with a roundabout at Baxter-Tooradin Road and finally ending at an intersection with Frankston-Flinders Road, 2 km north of Hastings.

For most of the route the speed limit is 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph), with shorter sections of 90 kilometres per hour (56 mph) and 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph).

History[]

The Western Port Highway was originally a single carriageway road called Lyndhurst Road in the 1960s, it has been progressively upgraded to a divided highway between the South Gippsland Freeway 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 Cranbourne railway line with an overpass in 2001.^[3]

The Country Roads Board (later VicRoads) declared Dandenong-Hastings Road a Main Road in June 1983,^[4] from the South Gippsland Freeway at Lynbrook to Frankston-Flinders Road in Hastings; this declaration included a section of Tyabb-Tooradin Road between Hastings and Somerville, subsequently subsumed into Dandenong-Hastings Road.

Dandenong-Hastings Road was signed State 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,^[5] with a further extension south between Cranbourne South and Langwarrin after further duplication in 2009.^[6]

The passing of the Transport Act of 1983^[7] (itself an evolution from the original Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924^[8]) provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through VicRoads. The Western Port Highway was declared a State Highway in March 1994,^[9] from South Gippsland Freeway at Lynbrook to Frankston-Flinders Road at Hastings.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004^[10] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Western Port Highway (Arterial #6230), beginning at South Gippsland Freeway at Lynbrook and ending at Frankston-Flinders Road in Hastings.^[2]

VicRoads is currently planning an upgrade to 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.^[11]

Upgrades[]

• 2001 – Duplication of 4.4km between South Gippsland Freeway in Lynbrook and Thompsons Road in Lyndhurst, including overpass of Cranbourne railway line, completed January 2001, at a cost of $30.5 million.^[3]
• 2009 – Duplication of 3.9km between Cranbourne-Frankston Road in Cranbourne South and North Road in Langwarrin.^[6]

Major intersections[]

LGA	Location[1][2]	km[1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Greater Dandenong–Casey boundary	Dandenong South–Lyndhurst–Lynbrook tripoint	0.0	0.0	South Gippsland Freeway (M420) – Dandenong, Chadstone, City	Northern terminus of highway and route M780; continues north as South Gippsland Freeway
				South Gippsland Highway (M420 southeast, unallocated northwest) – Dandenong, Cranbourne	Partial cloverleaf interchange
	Lyndhurst–Lynbrook boundary	0.8	0.50	Northey Road – Lynbrook	Southbound entrance and exit only
		0.9	0.56	Monash Drive – Dandenong South	Northbound entrance and exit only
	Lyndhurst	2.1	1.3	Portlink Drive – Dandenong South	Traffic light intersection
		2.2	1.4	Moreton Bay Boulevard – Lyndhurst	Traffic light intersection
		3.0	1.9	Glasscocks Road – Bangholme, Lyndhurst	Roundabout
Greater Dandenong–Casey–Frankston tripoint	Lyndhurst–Skye–Cranbourne West tripoint	4.7	2.9	Thompsons Road (State Route 6) – Carrum, Cranbourne	Traffic light intersection
Casey–Frankston boundary	Skye–Cranbourne West boundary	8.0	5.0	Hall Road – Carrum Downs, Cranbourne	Roundabout
	Skye–Cranbourne West–Cranbourne South tripoint	9.6	6.0	Ballarto Road – Skye, Seaford	Roundabout
	Skye–Langwarrin boundary	11.0	6.8	Cranbourne–Frankston Road (State Route 4) – Cranbourne, Frankston	Roundabout
		12.1	7.5	Browns Road – Cranbourne South, Junction Village	Roundabout
	Skye–Langwarrin–Pearcedale tripoint	15.0	9.3	North Road – Langwarrin, Devon Meadows	Roundabout Southern terminus of route M780, northern terminus of route A780
	Langwarrin–Langwarrin South–Pearcedale tripoint	16.8	10.4	Robinsons Road – Frankston South, Pearcedale	Roundabout
Casey–Frankston–Mornington Peninsula tripoint	Langwarrin South–Pearcedale boundary	18.5	11.5	Baxter–Tooradin Road (C781) – Baxter, Pearcedale, Tooradin	Roundabout
Mornington Peninsula	Somerville	21.2	13.2	Eramosa Road East – Somerville
		22.9	14.2	Bungower Road – Mornington	Roundabout
	Somerville–Tyabb boundary	24.5	15.2	Tyabb–Tooradin Road (north-east) – Tyabb O'Neills Road (west) – Tooradin
	Tyabb	27.5	17.1	Frankston–Flinders Road (C777 north, south) – Hastings, Flinders, Frankston Denham Road (east) – Hastings	Roundabout; southern terminus of highway and route A780
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Incomplete access       Route transition

See also[]

• Highways in Australia
• List of highways in Victoria

References[]