Route
At its Sydney end, the Hume Highway begins at Parramatta Road, in Summer Hill. This route is numbered as . The first 35 km of the highway was known as Liverpool Road until August 1928, when it was renamed as part of the Hume or Great Southern Highway, as part of the creation of the NSW highway system. Sections of the highway through Sydney's suburbs continue to be also known by its former names of Liverpool Road, Sydney Road and Copeland Street (through Liverpool).
The main Hume Highway effectively commences at the junction of the M5 South Western Motorway and the Westlink M7 at Casula. Heading eastbound, the M5 provides access to Sydney Airport and the CBD; while the M7 provides access to Newcastle and Brisbane bypassing the Sydney CBD. Both of these routes are tolled.
Other than sections within the urban areas of Sydney and Melbourne, the Hume Highway is dual carriageway or freeway standard for its full length in Victoria and nearly all of New South Wales; a single carriageway section through the town of Holbrook remains. Preliminary works have begun on the Holbrook bypass, with construction expected to be completed by 2013.
Although (other than the in-progress Holbrook bypass) the full length of the Hume Highway is dual carriageway (with at-grade intersections and restricted entry from adjoining land), there are considerable lengths of the highway which are of full freeway standard. Most of these sections are bypasses of the larger towns on the route, where the need to deviate the route to construct the bypass made it practical to deny access from adjoining land and thus provide full freeway conditions. In addition to these bypasses the sections between Casula (in southwestern Sydney) and Berrima (built 1973–92), and Broadford to Wallan (1976), which both were constructed as major deviations, are also of full freeway standard. The entire section in Victoria is categorised as a freeway by government roads authority VicRoads, although there a few intersections along the route that are not yet grade-separated. The speed limit on the full length of the highway, other than in Holbrook, is 110 km/h.
As the Hume Freeway approaches Melbourne at the suburb of Craigieburn, 27 km north of the city centre, the Craigieburn Bypass now diverts the Hume Freeway (and the M31 designation) to the east of the former route, to terminate at the Western Ring Road/Metropolitan Ring Road . This bypass was opened in two stages, in December 2004 and December 2005.
At its Melbourne end, the original alignment of the Melbourne–Sydney route followed Royal Parade northward from where it begins at its intersection with Elizabeth Street and Flemington Road. Royal Parade becomes Sydney Road at Brunswick Road and then became the Hume Highway itself at Campbellfield. This ceased to be the designated route of the Hume Highway in 1992, with the completion of Stage 1 of the Western Ring Road, at which point the designation of the southbound highway was truncated. The former highway south from the Western Ring Road to Elizabeth street is route is now numbered as, and is now officially called Sydney Road (Hume Highway).
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