Moorooduc Highway is a 16 km highway which runs from Frankston to Tuerong and, together with the Mornington Peninsula Freeway, was part of the main route from Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula until the completion of Peninsula Link in 2013. This name is not widely known to most drivers, as the entire allocation is still best known as by the names of its constituent parts: McMahons Road, Frankston–Flinders Road, and Moorooduc Road.

Moorooduc Highway

McMahons Road
Frankston–Flinders Road
Moorooduc Road

Map
General information
TypeHighway
Length16 km (9.9 mi)[1]
Route number(s)
  • C777 (2013–present)
    (Frankston–Frankston South)
  • C784 (2013–present)
    (Frankston South–Tuerong)
Former
route number
  • Metro Route 11 (1965–2013)
    Entire route
  • Metro Route 67 (1989–1998)
    (Frankston–Frankston South)
Tourist routes Tourist Route 12
(through Frankston)
Major junctions
North end Frankston Freeway
Frankston, Melbourne
 
  • Cranbourne–Frankston Road
  • Hastings Road
  • Golf Links Road
  • Frankston–Flinders Road
  • Sages Road
  • Mornington–Tyabb Road
  • Mornington Peninsula Freeway
South end Old Moorooduc Road
Tuerong, Melbourne
Location(s)
Major settlementsFrankston South, Baxter, Moorooduc
Highway system

Route

edit

McMahons Road (and the beginning of the highway) starts at the southern end of the Frankston Freeway and heads south as a six-lane, dual-carriageway road through the central suburbs of Frankston, crossing the Stony Point railway line until it intersects with and changes name to Frankston-Flinders Road. It continues south through Frankston South until it meets and continues south along Moorooduc Road as a four-lane dual-carriageway road through Moorooduc, before the road and the end of the highway) ends at the interchange where Peninsula Link and the southern section of the Mornington Peninsula Freeway meet. It is a notoriously dangerous stretch of road that has claimed many lives due to speed and uncontrolled intersections.[citation needed] Roundabouts have recently been installed[when?] at the Bentons Road, Eramosa Road and Bungower Road intersections. The Sages Road intersection is now controlled by traffic lights after numerous fatal and serious accidents at this high speed T-intersection.[when?] Heading southbound from Humphries Road in Baxter, the speed limit increases from 80 km/h to 90 km/h, and from Sumner Road, it reaches 100 km/h.

History

edit

Moorooduc Road was duplicated to just south of Sages Road in the 1970s, and during the 1980s the rest of the road was duplicated to Tuerong, to serve as an alternative to building a Frankston Bypass. The road was eventually linked directly to the southern part of Mornington Peninsula Freeway when it was extended to Tuerong in 1994.[citation needed]

Moorooduc Highway (as its constituent roads) was allocated Metropolitan Route 11 from Frankston to Baxter in 1965; it was extended further south along Moorooduc Road and eventually onto the southern sections of the Mornington Peninsula Freeway in 1989, shifting from Moorooduc Road to the freeway when it was extended further north to Tuerong in 1994. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, Metropolitan Route 11 was replaced by route C777 between Frankston and Frankston South, and route C784 between Frankston South and Tuerong, when Peninsula Link opened in 2013 (and was itself allocated route M11).

The passing of the Transport Act of 1983[2] (itself an evolution from the original Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[3]) provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Road Construction Authority (later VicRoads). The Moorooduc Highway was declared a State Highway in March 1990,[4] from the Frankston Freeway along McMahons Road and Frankston-Flinders Road in Frankston through Frankston South, and Moorooduc Road to Tuerong. However all roads were known (and signposted) as their constituent parts.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[5] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads declared this road as the Mornington Peninsula Route (previously Arterial #6600),[6] then re-declared it in late 2012 as Moorooduc Highway (Arterial #6860),[6] beginning from the Frankston Freeway in Frankston and ending at the interchange where Peninsula Link and Mornington Peninsula Freeway meet in Tuerong.[6] While the road is still presently known (and signposted) as its constituent parts, signs replaced along Moorooduc Road since the opening of Peninsula Link have been prominently renamed as Moorooduc Highway. The section of Moorooduc Road south of Tuerong was renamed Old Moorooduc Road.

edit

Moorooduc Highway initially acted as an arterial road link between the northern and southern sections of the Mornington Peninsula Freeway; since Peninsula Link opened to traffic in 18 January 2013, Moorooduc Highway now carries local traffic, while Peninsula Link primarily carries through traffic and bypasses congested roundabout intersections near Mornington as well as the intersections through Frankston, improving traffic flow in these areas.

Major intersections

edit
LocationkmmiDestinationsNotes
Frankston0.00.0  Frankston Freeway (M3) – Dandenong, Melbourne
0.20.12   Cranbourne–Frankston Road (Metro Route 4/Tourist Route 12) – Cranbourne, FrankstonNorthbound-eastbound traffic must turn left and U-turn from the left at next signals
  Hastings Road (Tourist Route 12) – FrankstonConcurrency with Tourist Route 12
Frankston South  Golf Links Road (Tourist Route 12) – Langwarrin South
  Frankston–Flinders Road (C777) – Hastings, Flinders
Frankston SouthBaxter boundary  Sages Road (C781) – Baxter, Tooradin
Mount ElizaMoorooduc boundaryEramosa Road West
MorningtonMount ElizaMoorooduc tripointWooralla Drive
MorningtonMoorooduc boundaryBungower Road
  Mornington–Tyabb Road (C782) – Mornington, Tyabb
MorningtonMount MarthaMoorooduc tripointBentons Road
Mount MarthaMoorooduc boundaryCraigie Road – Mount Martha
TuerongMount MarthaMoorooduc tripoint  Mornington Peninsula Freeway (M11) – Melbourne, Portsea
  Old Moorooduc Road (C784) – Balnarring

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Moorooduc Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  2. ^ State of Victoria, An Act to Re-enact with Amendments the Law relating to Transport including the Law with respect to Railways, Roads and Tramways... 23 June 1983
  3. ^ State of Victoria, An Act to make further provision with respect to Highways and Country Roads Motor Cars and Traction Engines and for other purposes 30 December 1924
  4. ^ "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 28 March 1990. pp. 902–3. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  5. ^ State Government of Victoria. "Road Management Act 2004" (PDF). Government of Victoria. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  6. ^ a b c VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015". Government of Victoria. pp. 1038–9, 1129. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.