Calder Freeway - History

History

The Calder Highway was named after William Calder, who was chairman of the Country Roads Board (Victoria) from 1913 to 1928. The CRB later became the Victorian Road Construction Authority and today known as VicRoads.

The highway was originally allocated a National Route 79 shield. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s this was altered to a designation for the majority highway portion, and a designation for the remaining freeway portion into Melbourne.

Originally, the Calder Highway (an undivided highway) started at the end of Keilor Rd in Niddrie. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the road was upgraded to Freeway standard together with the Tullamarine Freeway, ending in Keilor East and rejoining the Calder Highway. By the early 1980s the Freeway was extended to Keilor and then rejoined the Calder highway. However, it was not until the 1990s that work began to duplicate the rest of the highway to Bendigo.

The Calder Highway between the Melton Highway and the Western Ring Road is shown in the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan as part of the F4 Freeway corridor, which extends past the Tullamarine Freeway and Bell Street to Templestowe.