An estimated 13,000 trucks will benefit from the new Mordialloc Freeway which opens to the public on Sunday.
Nearly two years in the making, the freeway extension links the Mornington Peninsula Freeway at Springvale Road in Aspendale Gardens to the Dingley Bypass in Dingley Village, creating a non-stop connection from Frankston and the first completely new freeway since Peninsula Link.
Five bridges have been built over Springvale, Governor, Lower Dandenong, Centre Dandenong, and Old Dandenong Roads, with a sixth twin bridge over the Waterways wetlands to ensure rainfall and natural light reaches vegetation below.
At a cost of $523 million, the Mordialloc Freeway has used around 800,000 tonnes of recycled and reused materials.
It includes the world’s first recycled plastic noise walls.
The Victorian Government is calling it Australia’s greenest freeway.
Recycled plastic has also been used in drainage pipes and to reinforce concrete on the shared walking and cycling path, as well as recycled glass in asphalt, recycled concrete in road base, reclaimed asphalt pavement and landscaping mulch made of pine pallets.