History
The freeway originally began as an overflow from construction of the Mulgrave Freeway (now the Monash Freeway) in 1970, where the Mulgrave entered a sweeping turn south, crossed Eumemmerring Creek in Doveton and officially terminated at Princes Highway just outside of Dandenong. This intersection was later replanned as a proper underpass and the freeway was unofficially extended under the Princes Highway to run a kilometre further south, along the eastern border of Melbourne's Holden factory at the time, to terminate at the original alignment of the South Gippsland Highway where it met Pound Road.
Some years later, due to the unforeseen success of this section of the freeway, it was redeveloped and "extended" another kilometre south towards Lyndhurst. The old alignment of the South Gippsland Highway was duplicated and upgraded into the new stretch of the freeway, and a new dual-carriageway alignment of the South Gippsland Highway was constructed approximately a kilometre to the freeway's west. Pound Road was extended a few hundred metres west across a new bridge over the freeway, and Dandenong-bound ramps were constructed. The interchange (Lyndhurst interchange) where the freeway and the old and new alignments of the South Gippsland Highway met Lyndhurst Road (renamed Hastings-Dandenong Road not long afterwards) was reconstructed to allow the freeway to flow further south using an overpass above the realigned South Gippsland Highway: those wanting to follow the highway to Cranbourne or beyond simply used the off-lanes.
The Doveton segment of freeway between Eumemmerring Creek and Princes Highway was originally labelled as Mulgrave Freeway, however - even back then - plans were made to later extend the freeway further south-east towards Beaconsfield. Therefore, in the early 1980s, the segment of the Mulgrave Freeway south of Eumemmerring Creek was relabelled the South Gippsland Freeway, extending the northern reaches of that freeway officially by about a kilometre.
By 1988, the Mulgrave Freeway - rechristened as the South Eastern Arterial at this stage - had been over time extended and then linked to allow a freeway-style link from the city to Dandenong; this translated into a heavier use of the South Eastern Arterial and by extension the South Gippsland Highway. Not much was done to improve the freeway however, especially for the Doveton segment, which saw traffic volume leap as drivers used it to gain access to Princes Highway east beyond Dandenong and the suburbs beyond. As the entire South Eastern Arterial was designated a State Route 1 shield (later converted to M1), this section was also designated the same route: a metropolitan shield was designated to the stretch south of the Princes Highway beyond to Hastings-Dandenong Road (now Dandenong-Hastings Road). The bridge over the Lyndhurst interchange was eventually duplicated with little fanfare in the early-1990s, leading to increased use of the road, mostly to semi-trailers and the amount of freight using the road to get to the docks in the Westernport district: Dandenong-Hastings Road was yet again renamed the Western Port Highway to reflect this and was eventually duplicated in stages.
The freeway had its metro shield abolished when Victoria switched to the alpha-numeric route system some years later, and was given the M420 designation for the southern segment of the freeway (which extended to the southern portion of the South Gippsland Highway beyond the Lyndhurst interchange, the Westernport Highway was given the A780 designation): the northern segment still retained the M1 designation until the Southern Eastern Arterial - renamed yet again to the current Monash Freeway - was extended further south-east from Doveton along the planned alignment (the "Hallam Bypass") to Berwick in 2003. The northern segment assumed the M420 designation afterwards.
In 2010, the Pound Road half diamond interchange is being substantially upgraded with a new four lane carriageway being constructed over the freeway, with the addition of traffic lights to the on-ramp intersection, and ramp metering signals. These works will be complete in 2011.
Read more about this topic: South Gippsland Freeway
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