Thompson Road, Melbourne
Thompson Road is a major urban arterial road in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Route
The road starts as McLeod Road from its intersection with Nepean Highway at Carrum, immediately crossing under the Frankston railway line and heading east as a two-lane, single-carriageway road through Patterson Lakes; at the intersection with MacLeod Road and Schooner Bay Drive, the name changes to Thompson Road and continues east as a four-lane, single-carriageway road to cross over Mornington Peninsula Freeway, before widening into a four-lane, dual-carriageway road, crossing EastLink to meet Frankston-Dandenong Road at Carrum Downs. The name changes for the last time to Thompsons Road and continues east through Lyndhurst and Cranbourne, crosses over Berwick–Cranbourne Road and Bells Road in Clyde North, to eventually terminate at Smiths Lane just beyond Soldiers Road in Clyde North.History
The passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912 through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the establishment of the Country Roads Board and their ability to declare Main Roads, taking responsibility for the management, construction and care of the state's major roads from local municipalities; the later passing of the Developmental Roads Act of 1918 allowed the Country Road Board to declare Developmental Roads, serving to develop any area of land by providing access to a railway station for primary producers. Thompson Road from Wells Road in Carrum to Dandenong-Frankston Road in Lyndhurst was declared a Developmental Road on 1 July 1919.McLeod Road originally terminated at Wells Road 500m south to Thompson Road's current alignment over the Mornington Peninsula Freeway; Thompson Road also terminated at Wells Road 100m north of the current bridge. Both roads were connected along their current alignment due to the construction of its interchange with the freeway when it opened in 1980.
Thompson Road was signed as Metropolitan Route 6 between Carrum and Clyde North in 1989.
The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared Thompson Road from Nepean Highway in Carrum to Berwick–Cranbourne Road in Clyde North;, with the road undeclared east of Berwick-Cranbourne Road; this declaration formally includes today's McLeod Road and Thompsons Road, but signposts along these sections have kept their original names.