# Chandler Highway

Chandler Highway is a short road in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, connecting Alphington over the Yarra River and Eastern Freeway to Kew. Its total length is less than 2 kilometres, leading to the claim that it is "the shortest highway in the world". It was named after a prominent local businessman and politician A. E. Chandler, who was instrumental in pushing through the development of the Outer Circle railway.

## Route

In the north, the Chandler Highway commences at the intersection with Heidelberg Road and Grange Road in Alphington, and runs south as a six-lane, dual-carriageway road, crossing the Yarra River shortly afterwards, and narrowing to a four-lane dual-carriageway road at the intersection with Yarra Boulevard on the river's southern bank.

## History

The Fairfield Park to Riversdale section of the Outer Circle railway line opened on 24 March 1891, running from Fairfield Park station, via East Camberwell station, to Riversdale station. The line closed shortly after, in 1893, due to a lack of passengers, leaving a disused railway bridge crossing the Yarra River. After the rails were lifted from the bridge in 1919, the single-track railway line north of the bridge, running from Fairfield station through the middle of the Heidelberg Road-Chandler Highway intersection, became the Australian Paper Manufacturers siding, which was closed in the mid-1990s. In 1930, the bridge was re-purposed as the "Chandler Highway", which crossed the Yarra and incorporated Fulham Road, south of Heidelberg Road, which the former railway had cut through.
The Chandler Highway and Bridge Act 1954, passed by the Parliament of Victoria on 4 May 1954, declared the Chandler Highway over the former rail bridge a "public highway" and removed any obligation on the Victorian Railways to maintain it. In December 1954, the Country Roads Board (CRB) (later VicRoads) performed major maintenance on the bridge, involving deck renewal and the strengthening of the original trusses. It was discovered that the amount of steel corrosion was much greater than expected, lengthening the completion time well into the following year. On 7 September 1960, the CRB declared the Chandler Highway a Main Road, from Heidelberg Road in Alphington, to Princess Street in Kew.
The Chandler Highway became Metropolitan Route 21 in 1965. It shared Metropolitan Route 2, from Yarra Boulevard on the southern bank of the river, to the road's northern terminus at Heidelberg Road, also designated in 1965. That was replaced by Tourist Route 2 in 1989.
The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 gave the responsibility for the management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads. In 2004, VicRoads declared the road as Chandler Highway (Arterial #5859), from Heidelberg Road in Alphington, to Princess Street in Kew. Despite being called a highway, the road is still classified as a Main Road by VicRoads.
Chandler Highway was originally planned to be extended east along the former Outer Circle railway line corridor to the intersection of Earl, Asquith and Valerie Streets intersect at High Street in East Kew, and, although the route was still listed as a "proposed arterial" in 1980s editions of the Melway street directory, the reserve has since been landscaped. At the diamond interchange with Eastern Freeway, there are visible pavements reserved for the unconstructed entry/exit ramps.

### Old Chandler Highway Bridge

The original railway bridge, connecting Alphington and Kew across the Yarra River, was started in February 1889 but not completed until November 1890. The supervising engineer was John Monash. The bridge consists of a four-span iron box girder with red brick abutments and piers, capped with dressed bluestone. The girders are diagonally braced, with wrought iron lattice balustrading. There is a cantilevered walkway along the west side.
The bridge is one of the few 19th century bridges remaining in the metropolitan area. It is a local landmark, being substantially intact and a prominent element in the area. On 30 June 2016, it was added to the Victorian Heritage Register. After the new Chandler Highway road bridges had been opened in 2019 it underwent a restoration, and is now a dedicated shared pedestrian and cycling path.

## Congestion

Until the opening of the new bridge in March 2019, the highway was badly congested with traffic, since the four-lane highway needed to be funnelled into the two lanes of the old railway bridge to cross the Yarra. The bridge on Chandler Highway regularly featured in the RACV/Leader bi-annual Redspot survey of Melbourne's worst points of traffic congestion, and in 2014 was named in the survey as the worst point of congestion in Melbourne.

## New bridge proposals

The bridge sits on the boundary of the State Electoral Districts of Kew and Northcote. The State Member for Northcote, Fiona Richardson (Labor) led a community campaign during the term of Premier John Brumby (2007–10) in advocating for the bridge to be duplicated.
In October 2010, VicRoads released four proposed options for improving the Yarra River crossing with a new bridge:
* add an additional two lane bridge on either the east or west side of the existing bridge. The existing bridge would be retained as a two lane road bridge bringing the total lanes up to four.
* add an additional four lane bridge on either the east or west side of the existing bridge. The existing bridge would be used as a pedestrian/cycle bridge. Local cycle groups wanted to see this bridge full integrated into the shared path network via the Yarra Trail and the Anniversary Trail with an extension of the Anniversary Trail to Fairfield railway station.
With the Northcote electorate being one of the few battleground contests between Labor and the Greens Political Parties at the 2010 State Election, the Chandler Highway Bridge became a key election issue. The Labor Party committed to duplicating the bridge, while the Greens opposed such duplication. The seat was subsequently held by Labor, but the Party lost the state election to the Liberal National Coalition government. Plans to duplicate the bridge halted.
In the intervening period the Amcor Paper Mill, on the corner of Heidelberg Road and Chandler Highway, Alphington ceased operations and vacated the site in 2012 before it was sold in mid 2013. Successive State governments gave high level approval for residential development at the site subject to detailed planning, to address the likely increased traffic congestion in an already gridlocked area.
On 15 June 2014 Labor Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews and Fiona Richardson announced that Labor would commit $110 million to fixing Chandler Highway with construction works to commence immediately, if Labor was elected to govern at the 2014 State Election to be held on 29 November.

### New Chandler Highway Bridge

Upon its election in 2014, the Labor government announced that construction would proceed on a new six-lane bridge on the western side. This met with some objections by residents, concerned about the proximity of the road to their residences, but the then Roads Minister Luke Donnellan stated that this was a more environmentally sensitive option, which allowed Guide Dogs Victoria to continue operating on their present site. Construction commenced in mid-2017, all six lanes were opened to traffic in March 2019, and all work was declared complete in July 2019, with the old bridge converted for use by pedestrians and cyclists. The project also included the construction of a bicycle underpass under the bridge for the Main Yarra Trail, eradicating the need for cyclists to ascend 79 steps to reach the highway and rejoin the trail on the other side.

## Major intersections

| LGA | Location | km | mi | Destinations | Notes |
| Darebin–Yarra boundary | Alphington | 0.0 | 0.0 | Grange Road (Metro Route 21 north) – Reservoir | Northern terminus of highway at traffic lights; road & Metro Route 21 continues north as Grange Road |
| Darebin–Yarra boundary | Alphington | 0.0 | 0.0 | Heidelberg Road (Metro Route 46 east, west/Tourist Route 2 east) – Heidelberg, Greensborough, Clifton Hill, Melbourne | Northern terminus of concurrency with Tourist Route 2 |
| Yarra River | Yarra River | 0.5 | 0.31 | Chandler Bridge | Chandler Bridge |
| Boroondara | Kew | 0.7 | 0.43 | Yarra Boulevard (Tourist Route 2) | Southern terminus of concurrency with Tourist Route 2 |
| Boroondara | Kew | 1.1 | 0.68 | Eastern Freeway (M3) – Frankston, Ringwood, City | Diamond interchange |
| Boroondara | Kew | 1.4 | 0.87 | Princess Street (Metro Route 21 south) – Kew, Burnley | Metro Route 21 continues south at Princess Street |
| Boroondara | Kew | 1.4 | 0.87 | Earl Street (east) – Balwyn | Southern terminus of highway at traffic lights; road continues east as Earl Street |
| Concurrency terminus Route transition ||||||