By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A freeway that’s expected to divert trucks off Greater Dandenong’s congested thoroughfares has opened.
The $523 million Mordialloc Freeway officially opened for vehicles on Sunday 21 November – two years after construction started.
The nine-kilometre motorway is a non-stop link between Mornington Peninsula Freeway at Springvale Road in Aspendale Gardens to the Dingley Bypass in Dingley Village.
Its six bridges cross Springvale, Governor, Lower Dandenong, Centre Dandenong and Old Dandenong roads, as well as Waterways wetlands.
The State Government predicted it would take more than 13,000 trucks off nearby arterials.
It would slash morning and evening peak travel times between Dingley Bypass and Springvale Road, the Government stated.
A recent City of Greater Dandenong draft traffic study of Keysborough South predicted the freeway would divert up to 20,000 vehicles from Springvale Road.
It would also reduce trucks and other traffic on Dandenong Bypass.
The freeway has been spruiked by the State Government as “Australia’s greenest”.
Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan said: “It’s fantastic to see the new freeway open ahead of schedule and just in time for the summer holidays – allowing drivers in the South East to get home safer and sooner.”
Mordialloc MP Tim Richardson said it would give “thousands of drivers more reliable, shorter and safer journeys”.
About 800,000 tonnes of recycled and reused materials comprise the Mordialloc Freeway, including the world’s first recycled plastic noise walls.
The 10,000 noise wall panels were made with 570 tonnes of plastic from milk and shampoo bottles, kerbside recycling waste and soft plastic such as food packaging.
Recycled plastic was used in drainage pipes and reinforcing concrete on the freeway’s shared walking-cycling path.
The ingredients also include recycled glass in the asphalt, recycled concrete in the road base, reclaimed asphalt pavement and pine pallets turned to landscaping mulch.
During construction, 400 jobs were created and thousands were supported through supply and manufacturing.
Yarra View Nursery – one of the state’s biggest employer of workers with a disability – supplied more than 1 million plants. Its workforce grew by 10 per cent as a result, the Government stated.
