Frankston Freeway is a very short stretch of Melbournefreeway that was designed to upgrade Wells Road to freeway standard in the 1970s and provides a link from suburban Melbourne to Frankston. The freeway has previously been congested in holiday months due to missing section of the Mornington Peninsula Freeway, which since the opening of Peninsula Link through traffic has reduced immensely on the Frankston Freeway. The Frankston Freeway is now mostly used by local traffic. The freeway is a major express link - in and out of the largest city near the Mornington Peninsula, which is Frankston. It saves bumper-to-bumper congestion, with traffic coming from Melbourne wanting to enter Frankston and its surroundings. The freeway connects with three other urban freeways: EastLink, Mornington Peninsula Freeway and Peninsula Link.
History
In the early 1960s the Frankston Freeway was known as the ‘Frankston By-pass Road’, an undivided highway between Frankston-Cranbourne Road and Seaford Road. It then continued on to Mordialloc as Wells Road. The Frankston By-pass Road was upgraded to freeway standard in the early 1970s.
1971/72 - Section south of Klauer Street, Frankston North completed during 1971/72
1973 - Dual carriageways north of Klauer Street to Armstrongs Road completed early 1973. Grade separations at Klauer Street, Seaford Road and Austin Street ‘to be completed’ 1973//74.
With the route numbering conversion of the freeway, it was initially going to be changed to M11 after the completion of EastLink in 2008, although plans fell through and the route was retained as State Route 11). However, with the completion of the Peninsula Link in early 2013, it was replaced with M3, with the Peninsula Link and Mornington Peninsula Freeway signed as M11.
Route
The Frankston Freeway was designed to accommodate Mornington Peninsula Freeway from the northern section, and it has had a missing Frankston Bypass for decades, and at this stage the Frankston Freeway serves as the missing link between the two Mornington Peninsula Freeways. The Frankston Freeway begins in Carrum Downs south until Cranbourne-Frankston Road, as the incomplete section of the actual Mornington Peninsula Freeway, which bypasses Frankston, swings off to the south east. The newly completed Eastlinktoll road is continuous with the Carrum Downs end of the Frankston Freeway, providing a freeway standard road north through the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne to the Eastern end of the Eastern Freeway, and beyond. This has now caused immense gridlock around Carrum Downs with motorists using local roads to avoid all the traffic lights the Peninsula Link has created. The freeway is generally parallel to Nepean Highway along the route including the Mornington Peninsula Freeway and Moorooduc Highway.
