Cancelled Metropolitan Route 40 Realignment
  Via Eastern Freeway
  home | MR40 | MR83 | M3 | features
     
 
 
 
Advance Direction sign at Thompsons Road / Eastern Freeway onramp indicating MR40/83 duplex.
March 2005
  
     
 

Supposed Route

Name List - Column 1 & 2
 Route Number (at the time - 1997)

Column 3

 Eastern Freeway Springvale Road, Nunawading - Bulleen Road, Bulleen Metropolitan Route 83
Bulleen Road
(a.k.a. Bulleen Highway) 		Bulleen Road, Bulleen - Manningham Road, Bulleen Metropolitan Route 52

Distance

in Kilometres

 11.8

Eastern Duplex Terminus

Springvale Road (State (Bell/Springvale) Highway), Nunawading

Western Duplex Terminus

Bulleen Road / Manningham Road, Bulleen
 
     
  When the Eastern Freeway extension was completed to Springvale Road in 1997, drivers may have noticed the presence of Metropolitan Route 40 shields on signs at the interchanges of Springvale Road, Doncaster Road and Bulleen Road, advising of an MR40 / MR83 duplex along the freeway. In reality this was not the case, and it seems now that these signs reflected a short-lived plan to divert MR40 from its current alignment, eventually canceled halfway through the signage process.

From the signage on ground it is clear what the new alignment would have been - starting at the intersection of Eastern Freeway / Springvale Road, MR40 would have travel west along the Eastern Freeway until Bulleen Road, then north along Bulleen Road before finally resuming its current alignment west along Manningham Road. As a consequence, MR52's eastern end would have been extended south from Doncaster Road to the Eastern Freeway along Springvale Road; while at the western end, MR52 would have been truncated at the intersection of Manningham Road / Bulleen Road. Signage at both Eastern Freeway / Springvale Road (displaying MR52) and at Bulleen Road (no display of MR52) confirms this, some which are still showing the error to this day.

By the time the extension had opened, MR40 was haphazardly signed at the interchanges of Doncaster Road and Bulleen Road, though soon after some signs were rectified by coverplating the erroneously MR40 shields. With the introduction of M3 in 2008, many of the MR40 shields were removed.
 
     
     
  Photos  
 
Advance Direction Sign (AD), northbound on Springvale Road. At this point, MR52 would have been extended south from its current terminus at Doncaster Road.
March 2007
AD on Eastern Freeway offramp to Springvale Road.
March 2007
AD on Doncaster Rd for Eastern Freeway clearly showing MR40/83 duplex.
 August 2005
Intersection Direction Signs (ID) at Bulleen Road exit showing MR40 along Bulleen Road.
 August 2005
AD on Eastern Freeway before Bulleen Road showing MR40.
March 2008
IDs at Thompsons Road / Bulleen Road intersection indicating MR40/83 duplex.
March 2008
AD on Thompsons Road showing MR40 along Bulleen Road.
March 2008
IDs at Thompsons Road / Bulleen Road intersection indicating MR40/83 duplex.
March 2008
IDs at Thompsons Road / Bulleen Road intersection showing MR40 along Bulleen Road.
March 2008
AD at Thompsons Road / Eastern Freeway onramp indicating MR40/83 duplex.
March 2005
ID at Thompsons Road / Eastern Freeway onramp indicating MR40/83 duplex.
March 2005
ID at Thompsons Road / Eastern Freeway onramp with MR40 and MR83 shields on the road name panel coverplated.
March 2005
AD at Manningham Road / Bulleen Road intersection showing MR40 along Bulleen Road. This is where MR52 would have been truncated.
July 2008
 
     
     
 

Further Reading

Metropolitan Route 40
Metropolitan Route 52
Decommissioned Metropolitan Route 83
M3 Eastern Freeway

 
 
 
 
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