Metroad - History

History

Historically, National Routes passed through city centres and formed some of the main thoroughfares within Australia's largest cities. However urban growth led to massive congestion in the inner city areas. To bypass these centres, new roads were either constructed or main suburban roads were linked together to form ring roads linking one National Route to the other. The earliest scheme was adopted in Sydney in 1970s, the Ring Road scheme. They had special markers for identification.

Growth of urban sprawl made intra-urban navigation difficult. Many States introduced State Route systems in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and many roads within metropolitan areas were included. This scheme was adopted by most major cities. In Sydney the State Routes superseded the Ring Road scheme. Urban freeways in Sydney and Brisbane had their own route marking scheme.

However, it was later realised that the multiplicity of urban route marking schemes led to confusion. In the 1990s, these were streamlined in the new Metroad scheme. This scheme ensures that main priority routes are clearly identified and marked. As far as possible, urban freeways are absorbed into the system. It was adopted in Sydney in 1993 and Brisbane in 1996. Metroads usually completely replaced the State Routes and National Routes along their routes; however, State Routes not on designated Metroads were usually left untampered.

Sydney Metroads are given the designation M (number) if they are of motorway standard, other Sydney Metroads and all Brisbane Metroads are sometimes known as Metroad (number).

Sydney Metroads will be replaced by Alphanumeric Routes.