Mordialloc Freeway completed and will open to public this weekend

A long-awaited freeway will pave the way for smoother travel between the Mornington Peninsula Freeway and the Dingley Bypass when it opens on Sunday.

A long-awaited freeway providing seamless travel between Frankston and Clayton will open on Sunday.

Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan on Friday announced the $523m Mordialloc Freeway would be opening to motorists this weekend.

The new 9km road will link the Mornington Peninsula Freeway at Springvale Road in Aspendale Gardens to the Dingley Bypass in Dingley Village.

It is expected to provide uninterrupted travel from Frankston all the way to Clayton and take more than 13,000 trucks of smaller local roads.

Ms Allan said the project was the first new freeway since Peninsula Link.

“It’s fantastic to see the new freeway open ahead of schedule and just in time for the summer holidays – allowing drivers in the southeast to get home safer and sooner,” Ms Allan said.

“There’s travel time savings of up to 10 minutes during peak periods.”

Noise walls made from recycled form part of the Mordialloc Freeway construction. Picture: Ian Currie

More than 800,000 tonnes of reused materials have been part of the project, including the world’s first noise walls made from recycled plastic.

About 10,000 panels for the walls were made from 570 tonnes of plastic.

Ms Allan said this created extra jobs beyond those working on site.

“It is a vibrant construction industry because of jobs like this,” she said.

The project was initially proposed as the Mordialloc Bypass but was upgraded into a bigger project with more lanes as part of a Labor 2018 election commitment.

It was expected to be a $300m project but blowouts created by rising labour and resource costs meant the final cost was $523m.

There was also a push to name the project after Australian cult band TISM.

Liberal Democrats MP David Limbrick read the lyrics to their song Mordialloc Rd Duplicator in parliament as evidence they were a “visionary band who understood the importance of infrastructure”.

Mordialloc MP Tim Richardson, Jacinta Allan and Clarinda MP Meng Heang Tak Picture: Ian Currie

Mordialloc MP Tim Richardson said local residents in his area would welcome the traffic improvements ahead of summer.

He said he used to paint lines on similar roads before his time as a politician.

“I've checked out the line marking in this area and it’s absolutely fantastic,” Mr Richardson said.

“They wouldn’t let me loose on line marking now.

“This was a project that was envisaged on maps for many decades, talked about for many, many years.

“There’s going to be a bit of traffic congestion on the weekend cause everyone’s going to want to drive this 9km road.”

Crews have created five new bridges over existing roads as part of the project, with a sixth built over wetlands in a way that allows rainfall and sunlight to reach native plants.