Princes Highway

In 2013, New South Wales introduced a new alphanumeric route numbering system, replacing the former system of national and state routes.[8] The Princes Highway formerly entered Wollongong as State Route 60 down the Bulli Pass and ran a largely separate route from Bulli and Thirroul through to the southern suburbs from the parallel Princes Motorway, the latter of which bears the 'M1' route designation.[9] The gazetted route of the Princes Highway differs from the route of State Route 60 (and from that shown on road signs).[10][11] The gazetted route was designated State Route 60 (now part of Memorial Drive) for its length, but deviated from the road that is signposted as the Princes Highway between Bellambi and North Wollongong .

Princes Highway at Moruya.

Princes Highway at Eden.

The Princes Highway starts at the junction of Broadway (Great Western Highway) and City Road in the Sydney suburb of Chippendale. City Road in fact forms the first section of the highway, and becomes King Street, Newtown, also part of the Princes Highway. Where King Street ends at Sydney Park Road, the Princes Highway continues in its own right.

The highway in this section is constructed as a six-lane divided carriageway, other than along King Street (four-lane undivided) and along the western edge of the Royal National Park, where it is built as four-lane dual carriageway. The only major engineering structures along its route are the twin Tom Uglys Bridge across Georges River. The northbound bridge is of steel truss construction, opened in 1929, whilst the southbound bridge is of prestressed concrete girders, opened in 1987.

It runs through Sydney's southern suburbs (the St George area and Sutherland Shire), via Kogarah, Sutherland and Engadine to the village of Waterfall.

Princes Highway at Woonona

South of Waterfall the highway is paralleled by the 55-kilometre (34 mi) Princes Motorway (national route M1) to the top of Bulli Pass outside the city of Wollongong, which carries the majority of traffic. The Princes Highway then enters the northern suburbs of Wollongong and the Illawarra region via the Bulli Pass, whilst Mount Ousley Road, which is designated as part of national route 1, bypasses Wollongong's northern suburbs to meet the Princes Highway at Fairy Meadow, and carries inter-city traffic. Where Mount Ousley Road enters Wollongong, the Princes Motorway branches off Mount Ousley Road, and parallels the highway through the suburbs of Wollongong to Yallah. The Mount Ousley Road-Princes Motorway route is the inter-city and main urban arterial through Wollongong's southern suburbs, whereas the Princes Highway acts as a local arterial.

From the interchange with the Princes Motorway at Yallah, the Princes Highway continues through the bypassed Albion Park Rail before reaching the southern terminus of the motorway at the Oak Flats interchange. From Oak Flats, the Princes Highway is dual carriageway, mostly of freeway standard, with the exception of the Kiama bends at Kiama Heights. The highway then travels along the upgraded sections through Gerringong and Foxground before bypassing the town of Berry, where the highway follows larger gradients, compared to the flat terrain the Illawarra railway line follows immediately to the east.

Beyond Mullers Lane, Berry, the highway is a single two lane carriageway to Cambewarra Road, Bomaderry. Construction is underway for the duplication of the highway from Mullers Lane to Cambewarra Road and is expected to be completed in 2022.[79]

From Cambewarra Road the highway is four lane divided through Bomaderry and Nowra to near the junction with Warra Warra Road in South Nowra. Duplication to dual carriageway standard of a 6-kilometre (4 mi) length south from here to Forest Road was scheduled for completion in early 2014, following a three-month cessation of work while measures were put in place to protect a hitherto unknown area of habitat of the endangered green and golden bell frog.[80] Beyond this section is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) of four lane single carriageway from Forest Road to the junction with Jervis Bay Road.

From Jervis Bay Road southward the highway is mostly single two lane carriageway along the NSW South Coast, passing through Ulladulla, Batemans Bay (where the 1-kilometre (0.6 mi) town centre bypass is built as dual carriageway), Moruya, Narooma, then bypassing Bega and Merimbula and passing through Eden, before crossing the border at the Black-Allen Line into Victoria, 550 kilometres (340 mi) from Sydney and 515 kilometres (320 mi) from Melbourne.

A substandard alignment at Victoria Creek 13 kilometres (8 mi) south of Narooma was upgraded in 2012–13, as well as the 3.5-kilometre (2.2 mi) Bega bypass. Realignments with associated new bridges are also proposed at Termeil Creek, some 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Ulladulla, and Dignams Creek, some 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Narooma. Current identified future projects are a bypass of Nowra-Bomaderry (definite route identified only for section south of Shoalhaven River), and a bypass of Ulladulla-Milton.

In 2007 the NRMA claimed that the Princes Highway was a dangerous road[81] with ten fatalities and 729 people injured on the highway between Sydney and the state border in 2006.[82]

The Princes Highway is picturesque in some towns, such as Bairnsdale, Victoria, where the median strip has been made a garden.

In Victoria, the Princes Highway follows a very long and complex route. The route within metropolitan Melbourne carries the original individual names of sections of the Princes Highway on signage. Each road section has Princes Highway labelled in bold and the individual name in brackets, such as Dandenong Road or Geelong Road.

Apart from the routes National Alternative Route 1, C101 and C109 (in the outer metropolitan areas – such as Berwick and Werribee), the M1 Freeway route intersects (Monash Freeway/CityLink/West Gate Freeway/Princes Freeway) and this carries the much higher volume of traffic, including congestion in the peak periods, serving as the major, most direct and quickest route for Route 1 in Australia.

In Victoria the length from the South Australian border to the New South Wales border is 955 kilometres (593 mi). The highway passes (from east to west) through Orbost, Bairnsdale and Sale in the Gippsland region. The highway then passes through the Latrobe Valley, bypassing Morwell, Warragul and Pakenham to Dandenong and into the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Most of this section is freeway standard, with the main outstanding work being a freeway bypass of Traralgon, although the highway through Traralgon has already been built to urban dual carriageway standard.

As the road passes through Melbourne, it first follows the route of Lonsdale Street (through Dandenong), then Dandenong Road to St Kilda, and Queens Road through Albert Park (this section of highway is shown in the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan as part of the F14 freeway corridor). Closer to Melbourne city centre, it follows the route of Kings Way, and then King Street through central Melbourne. It then follows Curzon Street after leaving the central business district to enter North Melbourne, and then follows Flemington Road northwest, then Racecourse Road, Smithfield Road and Ballarat Road. It starts again as Geelong Road where Geelong Road branches southwest off Ballarat Road, and Ballarat Road leads onto the Western Freeway. The reason for the confusing dual naming of the highway through Melbourne is that it follows streets and roads which were already named when the highway was named in 1920.

Through much of Melbourne and its suburbs, the route of National Route 1 is not the Princes Highway, but rather the Monash Freeway, which intersects the Princes Highway on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne, and then the West Gate Freeway which bypasses central Melbourne. These two freeways have been linked by the southern link of the CityLink tollway. This avoids the confusing and congested arrangement of roads that is the Princes Highway in central Melbourne. The M1 include an advanced freeway management system for its entire 75-kilometre (47 mi) urban length, between Narre Warren and Werribee. Along with freeway sensors and associated data stations, overhead lane use management system (LUMS) gantries that show speed and lane availability, electronic message boards, real-time drive time signs and arterial road real-time Information signs (before the on-ramps); there are the 64+ ramp signal and metering sites. Hence, the majority of the on-ramps are traffic light controlled, depending on the density and speed of the traffic.

Heading towards Geelong in a south-west direction, the West Gate Freeway and Geelong Road join and become the Princes Freeway. Which, unusually for an Australian inter-city freeway, carries enough traffic to merit four to three lanes in either direction (often still being congested in the morning and afternoon peaks). On the northern outskirts of Geelong, the highway reverts from freeway to three lane dual carriageway through Geelong and its suburbs, with traffic light-controlled at-grade intersections. Through Geelong the highway is often heavily congested.

With the completion of the freeway standard Geelong Ring Road in (2008–2009), the M1 route follows the freeway-standard road from Winchelsea to Traralgon, without encountering any traffic lights (with the exception of Yarragon and Trafalgar, which are yet to be bypassed). The ring road rejoins the original highway at Waurn Ponds on the western edge of Geelong.

Within Geelong, the Princes Highway starts at the junction of Princes Freeway in the northern Geelong suburb of Corio, and runs through Geelong's northern and southern suburbs via an inner-city western bypass of the Geelong City Centre, to the current Highway 1 segment of the Princes Highway at Waurn Ponds in Geelong's southern suburbs. The highway is six lane dual carriageway from Corio to Latrobe Terrace, continuing as a four-lane dual carriageway to Waurn Ponds. The 1989 re-alignment of the Princes Highway (along La Trobe Terrace) provides a dual carriageway, four-lane limited access road to replace the original route along Moorabool Street in South Geelong and High Street in Belmont. Upon the completion of the final section of the Geelong Ring Road, another section of the Princes Highway was superseded in 2013 at Waurn Ponds.

After Geelong the highway heads in a generally western direction, continuing with the 'M1' designation as a dual carriageway road to Winchelsea (opened 2015). West of Winchelsea, the road is presently being reconstructed to dual carriageway standard, passing through Colac, before reaching Camperdown - ultimately reaching the port of Warrnambool. The section from Geelong to Warrnambool runs inland, and so avoids the slower, but scenic Great Ocean Road. From here, the Princes Highway passes through Portland before crossing the border into South Australia. At this point the highway is 1,530 kilometres (950 mi) from Sydney, 465 kilometres (289 mi) from Melbourne and 510 kilometres (320 mi) from Adelaide.

At Mount Gambier the highway takes a more northward tack as the coast curves to the northwest, passing the Coorong National Park. After Kingston SE, it turns inland (north) to avoid the lakes at the mouth of the River Murray. Shortly before Tailem Bend it is joined by the Dukes Highway, part of the main route between Melbourne and Adelaide. The highway then turns north-west and becomes the South Eastern Freeway, crosses the Murray River, bypasses Murray Bridge and continues to Glen Osmond on Adelaide's southeastern outskirts.

At this point the Princes Highway is 6 kilometres (4 mi) from Adelaide and 2,055 kilometres (1,277 mi) from Sydney. It continues north-west via Glen Osmond Road to Adelaide city centre, where it runs west along South Terrace then turns north along King William Street through the city centre and then follows Main North Road to Port Wakefield Road where it rejoins the coast. From Port Wakefield it continues as the Augusta Highway, and follows the coast, skirting Port Pirie to continue on to Port Augusta, where it terminates at the intersection of the Eyre Highway and Stuart Highway.